In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Dr. Marty Makary and Dr. Mehmet Oz — now leading the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, respectively — touted a rare policy win: getting major beverage companies to agree to phase out harmful artificial dyes by 2027. And they didn’t do it through regulation, but by cooperation with the private sector. Call it the art of the deal, applied to public health.
“We can better serve the public,” they write, “by using our convening power to drive meaningful change that is nimble, durable, and faster.” That principle should be a blueprint for future reform, especially when our nation’s health crisis has become too urgent for the red tape that has come to define its handling.
Makary and Oz aren’t asking for sweeping federal mandates or new bureaucratic programs. They’re asking for cooperation, which means getting industry leaders in a room, finding shared incentives, and moving quickly. Theirs is a fundamentally protective movement by the government that is not overbearing.
In today’s American system, it represents an effective way of enacting changes from the top down.
Our health statistics are a national embarrassment as they stand. A recent White House report ranked the U.S. last in life expectancy among high-income countries. Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are rampant. Over 40% of American children have a chronic condition, according to the CDC. Three in four young adults are unfit for military service in their current condition.
This isn’t just a policy problem but a deep cultural one. We live sedentary lives, eat hyper-processed food, and pay far too much for preventive care we don’t even receive. The FDA, hampered by years of regulatory inertia, has done little to stem the tide nor alleviate the flood of detrimental products that large corporations have pushed out to cut corners and maximize consumer demand.
Instead of waiting for federal rules to ban artificial dyes, the brains behind MAHA have sought to secure private-sector commitments voluntarily. Instead of clashing with health insurers over prior authorization hurdles, they’re negotiating to streamline care with physicians at the table. Though there is no guarantee of follow-through down the line, the momentum is there.
It’s a Jeffersonian idea with 21st-century tools. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the founding father of American medicine, believed that a healthy citizenry was essential to republican self-government. If democracy depends on self-discipline, shouldn’t we encourage habits of physical health and civic virtue?
This may help explain the quiet health revolution sweeping the country in some due part. COVID-19 exposed the cost of poor public health and the corrupt public officials who were complicit in skirting public interest. Now, Americans increasingly desire to walk more, obsess over their food labels, and choose substance over sugar. MAHA didn’t create this wave, per se, but it is uniquely positioned to ride it.
DR.OZ AND FDA CHIEF TOUT INDUSTRY DOING MAHA’s BIDDING
Of course, cooperation with corporations is always an uneasy alliance. But it’s far more effective than outsourcing everything to regulators. After all, a “corporation” is, at its root, a body that speaks on behalf of its constituents. In that sense, it ought to be answerable to the public, especially when public health is on the line.
Oz and Makary put it best toward the end: “Government leads with purpose instead of paperwork.” The real test will be whether corporations follow through. But for once, Americans might be witnessing something rare in public life: health reform that actually gets somewhere.