- Gov. Mike Braun (center), U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (left) and U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz take questions during a press conference in the Author’s Room of the Indiana State Library on Tuesday.
Photo by Anna Cecil, TheStatehouseFile.com.On any other Tuesday morning, you wouldn’t hear anything above a whisper in the Indiana State Library. But shouting led to the second floor where protestors, reporters and state lawmakers anticipated Indiana’s visitors from Washington, D.C.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, joined Indiana’s Gov. Mike Braun in announcing the nine executive orders that comprise “Make Indiana Healthy Again” (MIHA).
An audience member at Tuesday’s “Make Indiana Healthy Again” press conference in the Author’s Room of the Indiana State Library wears a MAHA (Make American Healthy Again) hat while listening to U.S. Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speak.
- Photo by Erin Bruce, TheStatehouseFile.com.“You’re setting the stage at the federal level, and we’re going to be your best allies at the state level,” Braun told Kennedy and Oz, both currently serving under the Trump administration following appointment confirmations.
The majority of Braun’s executive orders focus on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Under one of the new orders, SNAP will no longer be able to be used for candy or soft drinks, a move that falls in lockstep with Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative.
In addition to this restriction, two other orders focus on moving SNAP beneficiaries off of the program through creating and enforcing work requirements for all non-exempt recipients. Next to this, an order aims to rid the SNAP program of “fraud and abuse” as stated in a press release.
With the new SNAP requirements, another executive order will attempt to cut back on Medicaid spending by emphasizing program eligibility. According to the press release, 28% of Indiana’s Medicaid spending is “improper,” with this largely being attributed to ineligible beneficiaries.
The remainder of the orders would implement a Governor’s Fitness Test and School Fitness Month, work on food transparency with a focus on dyes, promote farm-to-table consumption, and fund a study of chronic illnesses caused by diet.
“I came out with nine executive orders today—finally, where you can do something rather than just talk about it,” said Braun at the press conference.
U.S. Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks to a crowd of journalists, lawmakers and others in the Author’s Room of the Indiana State Library on Tuesday.
Braun said he’s happy to see the Trump administration take initiative and thanked Kennedy and Oz. He said he’s looking forward to making changes at the state level, after saying he struggled to make changes at the national level during his six years as U.S. senator.
“I am so excited about being a partner on stuff that is basically common sense,” said Braun, emphasizing that he feels these steps successfully approach institutions like insurance and the food industry.
Oz spoke after Braun, discussing health-care and lifestyle decisions he hopes to encourage.
“We’re going in the wrong direction,” Oz said, discussing how health-care needs have outpaced economic growth in the U.S. He said that Indiana’s executive orders should help reduce chronic diseases, thus decreasing the cost of health care.
“The most patriotic thing you can do these days is get healthy,” said Oz, who previously has worked as a heart surgeon and TV personality and ran for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania in 2022.
Kennedy opened by applauding Braun’s MIHA agenda.
“This one really broke the bank,” he said. Kennedy expects that the orders will improve fitness, education, farms and health and said he is optimistic about Indiana under its current leadership.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to a crowd of journalists, lawmakers and others during a press conference in the Author’s Room of the Indiana State Library on Tuesday.
Photo by Anna Cecil, TheStatehouseFile.com.
He discussed childhood health concerns and obesity and said food in this country severely lacks nutrition and instead focuses on intense, artificial tastes.
“They changed our food system in this country so it is poison to us, and it is poison to the American people,” he said.
“I also want to take this moment to encourage governors all over the country to follow the lead of Indiana.”
Following the press conference, Rep. Maureen Bauer, D-South Bend, released a statement.
“It’s not leadership to bring your D.C. friends in for a flashy announcement but then fail to put your money where your mouth is when it comes to actually funding local public health programs,” she said.
Braun’s state budget request included walking back a 2023 decision increasing funding to Health First Indiana through 2025, she said.
“I appreciate Gov. Braun’s focus on health outcomes and preventative care,” said Bauer, “but this is a conversation that Indiana House Republicans have had many opportunities to get serious about for years now.”
Erin Bruce is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students.
