On Tuesday, the Make America Healthy Again movement held its summit in Washington, and the gathering looked less like an insurgent revolt and more like an industry conference. The movement, which began around distrust of the health system and corporate influence, featured executives presenting their companies' work as part of the MAHA mission.
During a morning panel on health care affordability, executives from UnitedHealth Group and Elevance highlighted their artificial intelligence efforts and defended prior authorization, a step that is widely unpopular with patients and providers. Federal officials and health care leaders mingled at the upscale event, a scene that would have been unlikely in the movement's earlier days.
The shift suggests that corporate players are eager to operate under the MAHA banner, whether by framing insurers as cost controllers or pharma as breakthrough developers. Whether the movement's original grassroots supporters accept that framing remains an open question, but Tuesday's summit showed the brand has become a valuable one.