Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday warned that the nation faced a "sea of desperation and debt" if it did not significantly address "chronic disease."

Kennedy faced questioning before the Senate Finance Committee. He will appear in front of another panel on Thursday. Long an advocate for reform to American federal health programs and a critic of chemical additives in food, Kennedy's nomination has roiled lawmakers, some of whom have called him anti-vaccine.

"Our country will sink beneath the sea of desperation debt if they don't change the course and ask, 'Why Are health care costs so high in the first place?' The obvious answer is chronic disease," Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing.

"The CDC says 90% of health care spending goes toward managing chronic disease, which hits lower income Americans the hardest," he added. "The president's pledge is not to make some Americans happy again, healthy again, but to make all of our people healthy again."

"For a long time, the nation has been locked in a divisive health care debate about who pays when health care costs," Kennedy lamented. "There are no good options, only bad ones, shifting the burden around between government and corporations and insurers and providers and families, is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."