AMNA NAWAZ: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly intends to remove all 16 members of an influential task force, one that plays a key role in determining what treatments insurers must cover and makes recommendations about care that are followed by doctors across the country.

It's a move that could have big implications for the health care system at large.

Stephanie Sy joins us now with more -- Stephanie.

STEPHANIE SY: Amna, the advisory panel may not be well-known, but it is important.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Secretary Kennedy plans to replace the members of the United States Preventative Services Task Force.

While the HHS sent us a statement saying no final decision has been made, the American Medical Association wasted little time expressing its concern, sending a letter to the health secretary over the weekend.

For more, we're joined now by Dr. Bobby Mukkamala.

He is a surgeon and the president of the AMA.

Dr. Mukkamala, thank you so much for joining us.

So, since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, this task force has determined which preventative screenings, which medications should be covered by insurers at no cost to patients.

That's a lot of power.

How would you describe its importance in patient care?

DR. BOBBY MUKKAMALA, President, American Medical Association: I would say it's very important.

I mean, there's -- science is an evolving process, right?

So what we used to know when I was a resident training in the last century what we know now about something, for example, as simple as an ulcer in your stomach, right?

I mean, that used to be something we cut out.

And now we know that gets treated for H. pylori, right?

So science evolves.

And that's something that it takes a very -- it takes a lot of attention to keep track of that.

And this is a group at the USPSTF that has the background, that has the education to be able to say, OK, based on what we know from the science at this moment, this is what we should screen for.

And the consequences, you improve people's lives and you decrease the cost of care by screening and finding something early on before it becomes an expensive stage 4 cancer.

STEPHANIE SY: The Supreme Court, though, has ruled that it is within the HHS secretary's authority to replace these appointees.

He's not talking about getting rid of it.

Most of the current appointees were appointed by former President Biden.

What is driving the AMA's concerns?

DR. BOBBY MUKKAMALA: Well, this - - there's a vetting process to figure out who's going to be working on this important committee.

These 16 people have an enormous influence on the health of our country.

And so to basically say, you know what, none of them should do that anymore, and we will replace them, and we as physicians, not knowing who's going to replace them, what their recommendations are going to be, what they may see differently, that's just too much of a black box, right?

And that puts our patients' health at risk.

And that's why they were fine.

They were doing a good job.

And all of that information, all the recommendations they made were useful to us because they were based on science.

Not knowing what's going to come next is putting our patients' health at risk and the health of this country at risk.

STEPHANIE SY: About 100 million privately insured people get preventative services each year at no cost under the ACA requirements.

How might these decisions trickle down to patients?

DR. BOBBY MUKKAMALA: Yes, it's going to be a bad trickle down, right?

Because what's going to happen is, right now, if you get a colonoscopy to screen for cancer and that's covered because it's under the USPSTF recommendation, and, all of a sudden, for whatever reason, their mind changes or there is no USPSTF, and now all of a sudden that's something that is optional, right?

It's not something that's recommended by a body that really studies it hard.

And what is an insurance company going to do?

It's somewhat likely, maybe very likely, that they will say, you know what, if there's not a body that says this is something you should get done, then this is something that we're not going to cover for free.

You will have to pay for it.

And where does that leave the people in this country when there's something that they need medically to catch something early, based on the evidence and the science, but they got to pay for it, right?

That is a bad direction to go in the health of our country.

STEPHANIE SY: I have not seen anything from Secretary Kennedy suggesting that something like a routine colon screening would be off the table with a new task force.

But I do know that conservative critics have accused the existing task force of allowing gender ideology and other liberal ideas to creep into its work.

They cite, for example, its recommendation for HIV prevention drugs to be covered, which Christian employers have taken issue with.

Doctor, is that a legitimate criticism?

DR. BOBBY MUKKAMALA: No, I don't think so.

I mean, when I look at science, it's not a matter of political opinion that gauges that science, right?

When you find somebody with HIV before they realize that they have it, we can do a lot to keep them healthy, right?

And that's a scientific thing.

That's not something that's based on somebody's political side.

And that's why we should defer to science to help decide how to keep our country healthier and how to help people that have a controversial condition when it comes to the politics of it to be healthy.

STEPHANIE SY: Kennedy took very similar steps to gut and replace members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee last month.

Do you see this as a pattern, just the wholesale firing of an entire task force?

And what's the worst-case scenario if that continues?

DR. BOBBY MUKKAMALA: Yes, I mean, I guess I have seen two in a row.

Yes, that looks like it might be a pattern.

I think that's a bad pattern, the consequence of which is the health of our country is not going in the right direction or will not go in the right direction.

And that's something that we're very concerned about, right?

For what we invest for health care in this country, we should be healthier.

And when we take the knowledge that goes into trying to keep patients healthy and sort of saying, you know what, we're just going to replace all that and see what that comes up with, the unknown is something that we as the physicians of this country that work hard to keep our patients healthy are really worried about.

STEPHANIE SY: Dr. Bobby Mukkamala with the American Medical Association, thank you so much for joining us.