President Donald Trump's firing at the Department of Health and Human Services includes an entire office setting federal poverty guidelines. This determines whether you are eligible for health programs such as Medicaid, food assistance, childcare, and other services.
A small team with technical data expertise worked in the HHS assistant secretary's office for planning and evaluation. Their fires reflected others throughout the HHS, coming without warning and confusing as to why they were “rif'sed”.
“I think they've removed the offices that have the word 'data' or 'statistics',” said one social scientist who agreed that KFF Health News would not name it because they feared further criticism. “As far as we know, it was random.”
Some fired people have led the development of poverty guidelines for many years and were seen as a repository of knowledge about the issue, according to social scientists and two scholars who have worked with the HHS team.
Unless the Trump administration recovers duties or moves its duties elsewhere, office looting could cut back on aid for low-income families next year, said Robin Gartner, fired director of the data and technology analytics division, who oversees the guidelines.
Timothy Sming, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Wisconsin's LA Follett School of Public Relations, said the poverty guidelines are “necessary to many people and programs.” “If you're thinking about someone who's thinking about someone who's fired, Swenson would be easy,” he added.
Under the 1981 Expenditure Bill, the HHS is required annually to obtain Census Bureau's poverty line figures, adjust inflation, and develop guidelines that agencies and states use to determine who are eligible for different types of help.
According to Ghertner, there is a special source for creating guidelines that include adjustments and calculations. Swenson and three other staff prepare numbers and quality checks independently before they are issued in January each year.
He said everyone in Gartner's office was told last week that without warning they were on administrative leave until June 1st, when they officially ended.
“Literally, there's no one in the government who knows how to calculate guidelines,” he said. “And we can't all teach anyone how to calculate a computer.”
According to former staff members, ASPE has around 140 staff members, and now it has around 40 staff. The HHS shakeup merged the office with the Healthcare Research and Quality Agency (AHRQ, which reduced from 275 to about 80 years old), according to a former AHRQ official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
HHS said it fired around 10,000 employees, which, combined with other moves, including programs that encourage early retirement, reduced its workforce by about 20,000. However, the agency does not explain where it cut or identified the specific employee it fired.
“These workers were told they couldn't come to their offices, so there's no transfer of knowledge,” said Wendell Primus, who worked for ASPE in the Bill Clinton administration. “They didn't have the time to train someone or transfer data.”
HHS defended the shooting. The department merged AHRQ and ASPE with “part of Secretary Kennedy's vision to streamline HHS and adapt it to Americans.” “The critical programs within ASPE will continue in this new office,” and “HHS will continue to comply with statutory requirements,” she said in a written response to KFF Health News.
After the article was published, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon called KFF Health News and said that others at HHS could work on the nine-member Rif'ed Data Analysis team. “The idea that this is going to stop is completely wrong,” he said. “Eight million people will not be affected.”
Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had so far refused to testify about staff cuts before a Congressional Committee overseeing many of his agencies. On April 9, a delegation of 10 Democrats from Congress waited in vain for a meeting in the agency's lobby.
The group was led by Diana Degette (D-Colo.), a ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee. He later told reporters that Kennedy had to appear before the committee.
Republican Committee Leadership spokesman Matt Vanhifte said HHS officials will meet with bipartisan committee staff on April 11 to discuss shootings and other policy issues.
ASPE serves as a think tank for HHS secretaries, Primus said. In addition to the poverty guidelines, the office maps how much Medicaid money goes to each state and reviews all regulations developed by the HHS institution.
“These HHS stuffing cuts (20,000) are clearly completely nuts,” Primus said. “These weren't decisions made by Kennedy or HHS staff. They're made in the White House. There's no rhyme or reason.”
HHS leaders may not be aware of the legal obligation to issue poverty guidelines, Gartner said. Instead, he said if states and federal agencies set their own guidelines, it could create inequality and lead to litigation.
And sticking to the 2025 standards next year could benefit hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk, Gartner said. The current level of poverty is $15,650 per person and $32,150 for a family of four.
“If you make $30,000 and have three kids, and you make $31,000 next year, but the price goes up 7%, then suddenly $31,000 won't buy you the same,” he said.
The poverty level for a family of five in 2025 was $37,650.
As of October, approximately 79 million people were enrolled in Medicaid or related children's health insurance programs. Both are tested by means and therefore rely on poverty guidelines to determine eligibility.
Eligibility for premium subsidies for insurance plans sold in the Affordable Care Act market is also associated with official poverty levels.
One in eight Americans rely on the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, or the Food Stamp Program, with 40% of newborns and their mothers receiving food through the Women, Infant and Children program. Both use federal poverty levels to determine eligibility.
A former employee at the office said he was not dishonest to the president. They knew that their work required them to follow the purposes of the administration. “We were trying to support the Maha agenda,” social scientists said, referring to Kennedy's “to make America healthy again” rubric. “We wanted to be useful even if that didn't match our personal worldview.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces detailed journalism on health issues and is one of KFF's core operating programs. It is an independent source of health policy research, voting and journalism. Find out more about KFF.
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