Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz Talks Health Care Fraud

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Kailey Leinz (0:07)

Joining me now for more, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, who is live with us from the Convention Hall. Dr. Oz, welcome to Bloomberg TV and Radio. Appreciate you joining us. You, of course, will be taking the stage yourself tonight. What is your message to Americans and the public and voters who are concerned about health care affordability?

Mehmet Oz (0:32)

We're making progress on health care affordability, evidenced by the fact that we have the largest drop in pharmaceutical drug prices for consumers in 63 years.

And the reason for that is not because a lot of things happened outside of Washington, it's because, very specifically, the President got involved in saying, we're not going to tolerate one in three Americans leaving empty handed from a drug store when they enter there with a doctor's prescription for medications they need. That's very disenfranchising to the American people. And so we went out there and learned that it's about three times more expensive to buy the exact same drugs in America than it is in Europe or Asia, even though it's the same product made in the same factory, often here in the US. And so we achieved most favored nation drug pricing, but as you know, we did not do it through price controls. We told all the big pharmaceutical companies, the top 26 have all joined in, representing 90% of all the drugs sold in drugstores that are branded, they need to get most favored nation pricing. Whatever it is overseas, same thing here, will help you get better pricing overseas, but be fair to Americans, no more global freeloading.

Kailey Leinz (1:33)

Well, and you were just with the president in the Oval Office last week, announcing nine of those new drug pricing deals. Are there more deals in the works?

Mehmet Oz (1:42)

There are more deals in the works, but we already covered 90% of all the branded products. So we've gotten most of the work done that we need. What we actually would benefit from is getting Congress to codify what we have done. These contracts last to the end of this administration. We're very proud of them, but we want them to last way beyond our time in Washington. So having Congress codify it will be wise. One little tip for all the viewers and listeners, trumprx.gov. Pay attention, they're all cheering for it already. Trumprx.gov is where all those prices can be found, including the GLP-1 drugs that help with weight loss, the so-called fat shots.

Kailey Leinz (2:20)

Well, yes, on that, just quickly, you of course have plans to cover GLP-1 in Medicaid. It hasn't attracted interests from a lot of states so far, and I wonder why you think that is and how you're trying to get states to say yes.

Mehmet Oz (2:36)

I like that. If you don't mind, ask the question one more time. There's a lot of applause here. If you're asking something I know about Medicaid, go ahead.

Kailey Leinz (2:41)

Sorry, you are in a very loud convention hall. You mentioned GLP-1s and Medicaid trying to cover those. They failed to attract interest from a lot of states so far. Why is that? And how do you get the state interest there?

Mehmet Oz (2:55)

Well, the good news is Medicare is very interested, and we have a Medicare program that will sell these GLP-1 medications to the right Medicare beneficiaries at $50 a month. That's instead of the $1,200 that it used to be. Medicaid is a little different because governors have to balance their budgets, and they are worried that if they don't narrow down the number of people who get access to these medications like for example, picking folks who are more obese than usual, who have comorbidities like diabetes or organ problems, that it becomes very expensive and they won't see the benefits. But here's my argument to governors, we're doing it for the same reason in Medicare, we're going to save taxpayers money over the course of the next two years if we use these medications correctly. Because the reduction in complications from obesity dramatically reduces the amount of money we spend on health care. It probably drives two-thirds of all the health care expenses. So taking care of obesity, making America look more like gazelles, really will have a benefit.

Kailey Leinz (3:53)

Well, and I want to get to the taxpayer burden and some of the financial questions facing Medicare and Medicaid. But if I could return to the drug deals that you said more are in the works, we were also told, at least by Secretary Kennedy, that the details of these would be made public for the sake of transparency. So why aren't they public yet?