Senators grilled Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on if and how he would reform Medicaid and Medicare during his first confirmation hearing to become the next secretary of Health and Human Services.

In testimony to the Senate Finance Committee, Mr. Kennedy seemed to confuse the two government programs that cover more than 150 million Americans.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggled to answer questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.,) about Medicare and Medicaid. When asked about how care for people who are eligible for both federal health programs could be integrated,

Kennedy made inaccurate claims about Medicare and Medicaid during his confirmation hearing.

In a confirmation hearing for his nomination to head the $1.7 trillion Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confused two of the massive healthcare programs he would be overseeing as secretary — Medicare and Medicaid — and insisted he was not anti-vaccine.

Today is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Health and Human Services. NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reports and Andrea Mitchell speaks with Dr. Kavita Patel about her concerns about his nomination.

Put on the spot, a lot of Americans might hesitate over the difference between Medicaid and Medicare. People who aren’t affected by one of these programs, which together enroll about 150 million people in the U.

Kennedy's misstatements about the program were peppered in between suggestions that he would seek to push privatization of the programs.