Kennedy Unveils National Kidney Care Plan During Visit to Fort Worth's JPS Hospital

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth on Tuesday, using the stop to announce a national plan aimed at improving kidney health across the country.

The Kidney Care National Plan rests on three priorities: preventing kidney failure, improving dialysis care and the options available to patients, and reforming the transplant system. Stated goals include detecting and treating disease earlier, expanding home-based care options, widening access to kidney transplants, and strengthening safety, transparency and accountability in the transplant system.

The need for earlier detection is considerable. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 90% of American adults with kidney disease do not know they have it. Locally, Tarrant County Public Health data show a kidney disease mortality rate of 15.4 deaths per 100,000 residents, above the Texas rate of 15.2 and the national rate of 13.1. Non-Hispanic Black residents face the highest rate in the county, at 24 deaths per 100,000.

A roundtable among Kennedy, other government officials and JPS Health Network leaders was closed to reporters. Afterward, Kennedy and JPS President and CEO Dr. Karen Duncan answered questions. Duncan noted that, as Tarrant County's safety net hospital, JPS cares for more than 40% of the county's uninsured residents. She said the hospital's role is to provide access and treatment, and to start "a more preventative journey" through its community sites.

Kennedy has made chronic disease prevention central to his Make America Healthy Again agenda, though his department and the Trump administration have been criticized for funding cuts, including to grants supporting chronic condition research. At the press conference, Kennedy said the National Institutes of Health research budget matches its 2024 level and that "we're doing more in terms of studying the etiology of chronic disease than has ever been done before." He added that when he took office, he could not find studies examining the causes of the most common chronic diseases, and that such work is now spread across the department.

The budget figures are more nuanced. Congress enacted a $47.5 billion NIH budget for 2026, comparable to the $47.3 billion in 2024. But NPR reported that the administration had proposed cutting $2.8 billion, roughly 40%, from NIH institutes studying kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and liver disease. Congress rejected those cuts.

The mix of research funding has also changed. Between fiscal years 2024 and 2025, funding for kidney disease and for diabetes research each rose 6%, and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis funding rose 3%. Heart disease research funding fell 7%, while funding for studying social determinants of health, such as economic status, education access and nutrition, dropped 10%. KFF has reported that grants examining how race and ethnicity intersect with health have been targeted for cuts.

Kennedy was also in Fort Worth on Monday evening, when he attended a rally for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is in the final stretch of his U.S. Senate race against state Rep. James Talarico. Kennedy stopped short of a direct endorsement, saying he had been instructed not to give one. "I think that all of you understand what, if I could, what I'd be saying right now," he told the crowd, which erupted in cheers.