HHS to cut 10,000 jobs during 'dramatic restructuring'

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is planning a “dramatic restructuring” that involves consolidating divisions and laying off “about 10,000 full-time employees,” the agency announced Thursday. 

According to its statement, the plan to “transform” HHS will save taxpayers $1.8 billion a year and focus its efforts on ending America’s “epidemic of chronic illness,” while ensuring that Medicare, Medicaid, and other healthcare services continue to operate.  

Despite reconstructing 28 divisions into 15 new ones and eliminating staff, HHS did not mention any cuts to services. In fact, it implied federal health programs would continue to function, only with increased efficiency. 

“We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in the announcement. “This department will do more—a lot more—at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

On top of the 10,000 firings, HHS added that it’s pushing for early retirements and employee buyouts, all in an effort to reduce the agency’s payroll from 82,000 to 62,000—a roughly 25% decrease. Jobs will be eliminated at all organizations under the HHS purview, including the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. 

The “reorganized HHS” will make “safe, wholesome food; clean water" and will push for "the elimination of environmental toxins." The changes to its internal structure are said to be designed to reflect these new priorities.