The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the US federal body dedicated to improving patient safety and healthcare quality, is described as "on the brink" of collapse after sweeping cuts under the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Health policy experts and 30 Democratic senators have accused Kennedy of "sabotage", warning that the dismantling of the agency will leave Americans "sicker, poorer, and dying from preventable causes" and set back health services research for a generation.

Staff numbers at AHRQ have been cut by around 75 percent, and in July the agency sent grant cancellation letters to roughly 150 researchers, scrapping more than 100 grants worth over $250 million. Although Congress appropriated $345 million for the 2026 fiscal year, only $15 million has so far been spent on grants, halting research across more than 30 states, including work on maternal emergency care, home dialysis access, hospital falls prevention, antibiotic overuse and chronic pain management. Senators have given Kennedy until 25 August to respond and rescind the cancellations, while the health department has previously defended the cuts.