Governor Kevin Stitt hosted Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today in Oklahoma City, announcing a collaborative effort to improve health outcomes across the state under the banner of the “Make Oklahoma Healthy Again” (MaHA) campaign. The initiative, echoing the broader national movement, aims to tackle the pervasive issue of chronic disease without resorting to government mandates.
Governor Stitt began by expressing his enthusiasm for the partnership. “I love the spirit behind the MaHA movement, a desire to improve health outcomes across America without government mandates,” he stated, adding, “I could not be happier to have the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary Kennedy, in Oklahoma with us today.” Stitt recounted a recent encounter at the White House, remarking, “The coolest person there, the person with the it factor, I came home and told all of my team was Bobby Kennedy.”
Secretary Kennedy, in turn, highlighted the urgency of the mission. “Oklahoma is 47th in health in the United States, and that’s not a good thing,” he asserted. He underscored a national health crisis, particularly among children, contrasting current statistics with his own childhood. “When I was a kid, we had the healthiest children in the world, and today we have the sickest children.”
Kennedy presented stark figures to illustrate the decline in public health:
- Chronic Disease: “When my uncle was president, I was a 10-year-old boy, and we had 3% of Americans had chronic disease. At that point. Today, 60% had chronic disease.”
- Obesity: “The obesity rate was 3% in the United States, and today it’s about 50%.” He cited Japan, where processed food is restricted in schools, as maintaining a 3% obesity rate. He also noted a dramatic increase in diabetes in China, from “virtually zero diabetes” 15 years ago to “51% of the adult population is diabetic or pre-diabetic” today, attributing this partly to the influx of 20,000 fast-food establishments and American processed food.
- Juvenile Diabetes: “When I was a boy, the typical pediatrician would see one case of juvenile diabetes in their lifetime. Today, 38% of teens has diabetes are pre-diabetic.”
- Autism: Referencing a 1970 Wisconsin study that found an autism incidence rate of 0.7 per 10,000 children (less than 1 in 10,000), Kennedy contrasted it with recent data. “Three weeks ago, we released our latest numbers, one in every 31 kids has an autism diagnosis.” He further noted California’s rate of 1 in 19 children, and 1 in 12.5 boys, citing it as the state with the best autism incidence capture system. Kennedy warned of the financial implications, projecting that “by 2030 it’s going to cost us, just for autism, a trillion dollars a year.”
- Healthcare Spending: Kennedy emphasized the financial burden of chronic disease. “When my uncle was President, we spent zero on chronic disease in this country… Today, we spend $1.7 trillion and it’s rising.”
- National Security & Fertility: The health crisis, he argued, also poses a threat to national security, with “75% of American kids cannot qualify for military service.” He also highlighted plummeting fertility rates and alarming physiological changes in youth: “Teenage boys today, American boys have half the testosterone of 65-year-old men, half the sperm count. Our girls are reaching puberty six years early.”
- COVID-19 Deaths: Kennedy linked chronic disease to the high COVID-19 mortality rate in the U.S., where “we had 16% of the COVID deaths in this country, and we only have 4.2% of the world’s population.” He attributed this to the nation’s “highest chronic disease burden,” noting that the “average American who died from COVID had 3.8 chronic diseases.”
Kennedy stressed the need for systemic change, both from the top and, crucially, “from the grassroots, from local leadership, I mean, individual Americans who are taking responsibility for their health.”
Governor Stitt then outlined the specific steps Oklahoma is taking:
- SNAP Waiver for Unhealthy Foods: “The team at Oklahoma DHS has submitted a waiver for SNAP benefits in Oklahoma, so our tax dollars are not going to continue to fund foods that are making people sick.” This waiver, currently on Secretary Brooke Rollins’ desk at the USDA, requests to remove “soda, candy and confectionary items off of the SNAP list.” Kennedy reinforced this, stating, “10% of SNAP waivers go to soda drinks, and we’re paying for them at the front end by buying soda for the poorest Americans, and then we’re paying for them in the back end with this diabetes epidemic through Medicaid and Medicare.”
- Executive Order on Public Health: Governor Stitt signed an executive order promoting health. He is instructing the Oklahoma Department of Health to “stop recommending fluoride in our water.” While cities and water districts can still make their own choices, it will no longer be a state recommendation.
- Eliminating Artificial Dyes: The executive order also instructs “all the state agencies that provide meals… whether it be school lunches or in our prisons, to discontinue the use of artificial dyes.” Kennedy noted the profound impact of nutrition on mental health, citing studies showing significant reductions in violence (38%), assaults (85%), and suicides (100% in one juvenile facility) when prison food is improved.
- Advisory Council: An advisory council will be convened to “study and recommend other changes that can make and improve the health outcomes across the state of Oklahoma.”
- Promoting Wellness: Governor Stitt also mentioned plans to promote fitness and wellness throughout the summer, including a potential “garden contest.”
Both leaders also touched on mental health, with Secretary Kennedy stating that addiction and suicide are “among our greatest priorities at HHS.” He emphasized the growing scientific evidence connecting mental health to food, asserting that “as we improve our food through initiatives like Governor Stitt’s initiatives here, we are going to be doing part of the job of ending the mental health crisis in our country.”
Governor Stitt concluded by reiterating his goal for Oklahoma to be “top 10 in everything we do, and that because that is also healthy families in the state of Oklahoma.” He expressed gratitude for Secretary Kennedy’s visit, stating, “It’s such an honor to have you in the great state of Oklahoma, and today we’re going to get the ball rolling on MaHA, making Oklahoma healthy again.”
