RFK Jr. Praises Trump's Aesthetic Changes To Oval Office, Recalls Decor Of John & Jackie Kennedy

Forbes Breaking News

At a "Making Health Technology Great" event at the White House on Wednesday, HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy promoted a new effort to increase patients' access to their medical records.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, Mr. President, and I just want to begin by making a comment that

00:13is irrelevant to what we're gathered here today to talk about, but I've been coming

00:18to this building for 65 years, and I have to say that it's never looked better.

00:30And I've spent some time in the Oval Office, which really has, it's been transformed, and

00:39I was looking at a picture of the Oval Office the other day when I was there, when I was

00:44a kid with my uncle, and, you know, it was an extraordinary, it's always an extraordinary

00:49to go into that sacred space, but I have to say that it looked kind of drab in the pictures,

00:57and they're black and white pictures, but look drab, and it looks the opposite of drab

01:01today, and I think, I know all these portraits, I hope you get a chance to look at them when

01:06you go out there, that they were handpicked by the President, and many of them hijacked

01:13from other agencies that were trying to keep them, but I mean, you know, my uncle, my aunt,

01:23Jackie, who were deeply committed to design, to beauty, and who understood that it's important

01:30to have our public buildings be beautiful, because it inspires us, it elevates the human

01:36spirit, it's one of the, it is a template, and it's a, it's an example, an exemplar for,

01:44for democracy, the, the, the releasing through freedoms of the creativity of the human spirit,

01:51and this building of all buildings should look beautiful, and under your stewardship, it looks

01:57extraordinary today, so thank you, Mr. President, for that.

02:02A couple of, about three weeks ago, I met with the Indonesian health minister, and Indonesia

02:11today is regarded as the highest flourishing nation on earth, since 1990, it has increased

02:20the lifespan of its women by eight years, of its men by nine years, there is no country

02:26that has a record like that, and there are two major innovations that allowed them to

02:32achieve that extraordinary outcome, and one of those was to disincentivize people from eating

02:39processed foods.

02:42You are paid not to eat processed foods, and you are penalized for eating processed foods.

02:48The other innovation that really transformed Indonesia was allowing people control of their individual

02:56health records, and he showed me the app that they use, that everybody in Indonesia has,

03:03and it shows your height, your weight, your blood type, your BMI, your cardiac markers, your

03:09diabetes markers, your cholesterol, and any kind of individualized treatments that you had.

03:17So, if you go to a doctor in another town, he doesn't do what we have to do here, which

03:23is to sit there with a clipboard and a fax machine in order to get your health records.

03:29It's available, and it allows them to give better treatment, and it also allows you to

03:35make better choices over your life.

03:37And there's other apps like Yucca in Indonesia that allow you to choose good foods when you

03:45go to the grocery store.

03:47So you can turn your app on on your phone, and you can get full information of those foods.

03:52Well, now, if you have your medical records, you can get personalized advice, and that app

03:57will also give you advice about a better alternative.

04:02So we're going to be able to – we met – Dr. Oz and I met with the former Prime Minister

04:07Rudd of Australia just before – just after the election during the transition phase.

04:15And he, after his retirement as Prime Minister, he ran a commission to reorganize the Australian

04:24health system, and they revolutionized, and they vastly improved health in Australia.

04:30And he said the single thing that he did that was most important to that transformation

04:36was the transparency that occurs when people control their own health records, because it

04:41gives people the choice over their own health decisions and over their own lives, and it

04:45gives them a sense of responsibility and allows them to measure the interventions if they change

04:52their diet, if they change their exercise.

04:55It can show you how many steps you took today.

04:59They can tell you if your glucose is spiking.

05:02And all of that information will now be available to American citizens.

05:07Sixty years ago today, we passed Medicaid and Medicare in this country.

05:13And we have 60 CEOs in this room of these extraordinary companies, some of which the President just mentioned,

05:21and have all agreed voluntarily to start sharing information.

05:26President Trump, during his first term, passed the interoperability rule, and it was intended to

05:35do this for 20 years. The federal government has been trying to do this. Everybody recognizes it's

05:40absolutely critical innovation for us advancing the health of American citizens to give them

05:47responsibility and to give them control over their own health care choices.

05:52And unfortunately, you ran out of time the last time around. President Trump gave us instructions that he

06:00wanted this to happen within six months. We barely made it under the wire, thanks to Dr. Haas's leadership.

06:07And within six months, every American's going to be doing it, thanks to the cooperation of the corporate

06:12leaders in this room. You know, about three months ago, I met with the food executives, and I asked

06:19them to voluntarily come forward and get rid of food dyes of the nine synthetic petroleum dyes. And this is

06:28something, again, the government, Democrats and Republicans have been trying to do for 20 years.

06:33And the industry came forward, and now 40 percent of the food industry in this country

06:38has taken the pledge to remove food dyes from all of their foods. That happened because of your

06:44leadership, Mr. President. A month ago, we got, after a lot of work by Chris Klump and Dr. Oz and a lot of

06:53other people in our agency, we got all the insurance executives to come together in our country and in

07:01our offices and agree to get rid of pre-authorization for 80 percent of the DSM clothes. This is a voluntary

07:11agreement. 80 percent of the industry has now agreed to do that. So this is happening because of good

07:18leadership. President Trump, you've asked us to think big. You've inspired us to dream big. And you

07:26have, you've enabled us to accomplish things that no other president has been able to do. So I want to

07:34thank you for your leadership, for allowing this to happen. And with your leadership, we're going to make

07:40America healthy again. Now I want to introduce my friend, my colleague, the crypto czar, the acting

07:47administrator of Doge, David Sachs.

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