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The plan will also consolidate 28 HHS divisions into just 15, including the creation of a new ideologically driven super-agency: the Administration for a Healthy America, a centerpiece of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda focused on chronic disease rather than equitable public health.

Lipkin's work faces an uncertain future after grants from the federal government were terminated last week, stripping patients with this chronic disease of one of the few sources of research endeavoring to understand their condition and find treatments, he said.

“We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic. This Department will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

“In fact, the rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically as our department has grown,” he said.

“Our lifespan has dropped. So Americans now live six years shorter than Europeans. We have the sickest nation in the world, and we have the highest rate of chronic disease. The US ranks last among 40 developed nations in terms of health, but we spend two to three times more per capita than those nations.”