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Kentucky committee backs resolution to study ‘Make America Healthy’ recommendations
Summary
The Senate Families and Children Committee voted unanimously to advance a committee substitute for Senate Concurrent Resolution 61, calling for a legislative task force to review recommendations tied to the Make America Healthy commission.
The Senate Families and Children Committee voted unanimously to carry forward a committee substitute for Senate Concurrent Resolution 61, which asks the General Assembly to form a legislative task force to consider recommendations from the Make America Healthy (MAHA) commission.
Senator Shelley Funke Froehmeyer, who sponsored the resolution, told the committee MAHA "is a vision for making America healthy again" and described the proposal as a way to focus state policy on "root causes rather than symptoms." The substitute carried on a voice vote at the committee level and the roll call later showed a 9-0 favorable committee expression.
The resolution as presented would create an eight-member legislative task force — four senators and four representatives, with six members from the majority party and two from the minority — to coordinate with the federal MAHA commission and review a slate of policy areas. Funke Froehmeyer told the committee the task force would consider recommendations including reevaluating Medicaid drug approvals, scrutinizing high-cost, long-term medications, and promoting preventative and alternative therapies.
"We want to promote preventative and alternative therapies," Funke Froehmeyer said, and she described several related aims: integrating holistic health into medical and dental curricula, updating clinical guidelines to include a broader range of treatment options, strengthening oversight and transparency of regulatory processes, and fostering community engagement and pilot research programs.
Committee members asked questions about the resolution during discussion. Senator Herron noted access to fresh food and local environmental issues in her district and said she looked forward to working on "root causes" of poor health. Senator Wise interjected a lighter question about cookies from a home-birth coalition; Funke Froehmeyer responded in the hearing's colloquial tone.
The committee carried the committee substitute forward and recorded a final favorable expression of 9-0. The resolution was described to the committee as a legislative study mechanism; no appropriation or statutory change was enacted at the meeting.
The resolution text and the committee substitute (PSS 1) are in the committee packet; the sponsor said she had coordinated prior to the meeting with the Kentucky liaison for the MAHA effort and with stakeholders mentioned in her remarks.
