By Puyaan Singh

June 24 (Reuters) - U.S. Health Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr. said on Tuesday that the Department of Health and

Human Services plans to launch an advertising campaign to

encourage Americans to adopt wearable devices, such as those

that measure heart rate or blood glucose levels.

Shares of continuous glucose-monitoring device makers Abbott

and Dexcom ( DXCM ) were up 3.6% and 10%, respectively,

in afternoon trading.

"We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda,

Making America Healthy Again ... my vision is that every

American is wearing a wearable within four years," Kennedy said,

speaking before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on

Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Health during a hearing on

his department's 2026 budget request.

"It's a way of people can take control over their own health

... they can see what food is doing to their glucose levels,

their heart rates and a number of other metrics as they eat it,"

he added.

Kennedy also described the campaign as "one of the biggest"

in the agency's history.

Kennedy, who has long promoted healthy eating over medicine

as a way to combat obesity and has been a prominent critic of

vaccine safety, has also been critical about Novo Nordisk's

diabetes drug Ozempic, which is often prescribed for

weight loss.

However, he has expressed support for prescription of such

weight-loss drugs for adults with morbid obesity and diabetes,

provided it is accompanied by exercise.

"You know the Ozempic is costing $1300 a month, if you can

achieve the same thing with an $80 wearable, it's a lot better

for the American people," Kennedy said, adding, "We're exploring

ways of making sure that those costs can be paid for."

J.P.Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus commented, "We think it's

premature to interpret this as a direct comment on whether

Medicare and other commercial payors will move towards covering

non-intensive Type II diabetes patients or other areas of

proactive monitoring."