How MAHA can really save American lives

Thirty-seven years ago, an executive at Monsanto named Harold Corbett delivered a speech titled “Chemical risk: Living up to public expectations.” The 1988 speech called out an industry that delivered miracles and devastating mistakes.

Corbett described two chemical industries. One was responsible for safe drinking water, higher crop yields, medicines, and a better standard of living. The other was responsible for contamination, waste, and health crises: “The public doesn’t care how far we’ve come. They care how far we still have to go.”

MAHA is about returning to a Republican Party that answers to voters, not corporate boards, and that means telling the truth about the harm caused when Big Health dictates our policies.

It still rings true today. Harold Corbett was my grandfather.

Lost trust

To turn a profit, pharmaceutical companies suppress unfavorable data and mislead consumers with predatory advertising. Food manufacturers sell metabolic dysfunction; hospital systems consolidate care; and chemical conglomerates litigate instead of innovate.

Now, a growing number of Americans are speaking out decisively against the quartet of Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Food, and Big Health. This coalition of “Make America Healthy Again” voters is targeting a crisis of institutional credibility and a growing unease with an industry that is no longer trusted and seems more focused on profits than on people’s health.

As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I see these problems firsthand. With the MAHA coalition powering Republican victories up and down the ballot, we as Republicans have a generational opportunity to take back our health system. We can make changes and save American lives, but we need to agree on the problems to start.

More than two-thirds of all Missouri adults are overweight. Synthetic opioid overdoses claimed nearly 850 lives last year, with local St. Louis and St. Charles Counties ranking at or near the worst in the state. And should we forget the COVID mandates that caused overdoses to spike, caused childhood anxiety and depression to rise, and kept healthy toddlers in masks? Such measures stunted their development for years, as dissenting scientists and members of the public were told to “trust the experts” and shut up.

Dismissing people is the quickest way to continue to diminish what little trust remains. In my practice, I encounter this lack of trust in our medical establishment every day with my patients. After years of being told to trust “the science” — meaning “don’t question us” — many people no longer trust anything the medical establishment has to say.

A prescription for healing

This is where the MAHA movement can help heal our nation. The Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have been making significant strides to regain public trust, both through the MAHA Commission and through medical reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Trump signed in July.

Republicans need to get on board, and Congress needs to act, to do much more on this crucial issue.

On food transparency and clean labels, Americans deserve full disclosure of the chemicals, additives, and pesticides that are going into our foods, particularly those banned in Europe and Canada. This includes food dyes and glyphosate, a pesticide and carcinogen that is found throughout our food system.

RELATED: It's been a year since Kennedy and Trump joined forces. Here are MAHA’s top 3 wins.

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

On preventive care and lowering costs, we have made great strides by prioritizing direct primary care in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. We should work to expand choice even more so that individuals and families have direct access outside our bloated and opaque insurance system.

Finally, our country needs a national plan for longevity and health: a real approach to wellness beyond relief for chronic symptoms, focusing instead on treatment of root causes. This must include protecting our kids from harmful food additives, encouraging beneficial physical and social activities, and stopping the grasp of powerful social media companies that are harming their health.

Until the scientific community admits past failures and entanglements, trust won’t return. Our public officials must lead as well, instead of following whatever Big Pharma and special interest groups have to say. Liberty thrives when truth is public and trust is earned.

Making health care thrive again

The same problems facing Americans are the problems facing our government. We keep swapping out treatments — new politicians, new leaders, new promises — but the patient keeps getting worse. The solution is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but to improve the system so that it works for regular people. That is how we restore faith in our institutions and return to responsible, trusted capitalism.

I don’t want to dismantle the health care industry. We need it to thrive. MAHA is about returning to a Republican Party that answers to voters, not corporate boards, and that means telling the truth about the harm caused when Big Health dictates our policies.

This movement can and will win broadly if we deliver on these promises.

In his speech, my grandfather quoted Mark Twain: “When in doubt, tell the truth.” To that, I would add: When the truth is clear, act. The restoration of trust and survival of these industries, our government, and our people depend on it.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.