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US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that his vision is that “all Americans will wear wearables within four years.”
He commented to Congressional members on devices such as smartwatches, smart rings and fitness trackers, adding that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is “initiating one of the biggest advertising campaigns in HHS history, seeking to encourage Americans to use wearables.”
Kennedy said at a hearing before a House Committee on Energy and Commerce that wearables are a way for people to “control their health.”
“You know, they can see what food they do against glucose levels, their heart rate and many other metrics when they eat it,” he said. Member of the council. “And they can start making good judgments about their diet, their physical activity, and how they live their lives.”
The Apple Watch SE will be seen on April 20, 2024 at a store in Krakow, Poland. (Akub Porzycki/Nurphoto)
The health secretary said he has a friend who lost weight while monitoring diabetes, “just wearing a glucose meter made a life completely different”
Continuous Stock Glucose Monitoring Device Makers Abbott and Dexcom rose 3.6% and 10% respectively in afternoon trading, Reuters reported.
The image in this photo shows a diabetes surveillance device in London in February 2025. (Peter Dazelly)
He is critical of the diabetes medication Ozempic, which is often used for weight loss, but he has expressed his support for prescribing such weight loss medications for adults with morbid obesity and diabetics when exercise is accompanied by.
“You know that if you can achieve the same thing, then the cost of Ozempic costs $1,300 a month. $80 wearable, It’s much better for the American people,” Kennedy said.
HHS Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified in the House Energy and Commercial Subcommittee on a health hearing entitled “The 201026 Department of Health and Human Services Budget” in the Rayburn Building on Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.)
“I think it’s too early to interpret this as a direct comment on whether Medicare and other commercial payers will move to cover decentralized II diabetes patients or other areas of aggressive surveillance,” said Robbie Marcus, analyst at JP Morgan.
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For a long time, Kennedy has promoted healthier diets than medicine as a way to combat obesity, and has been a prominent skeptic of vaccine safety.
He added that both directly and X, the upcoming wearable campaign is “an important part of our mission to make America healthy again.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
