🇺🇸 The White House — CMS Admin Dr. Oz Faces Unpatriotic Media in Fiery Press Briefing [LIVE]

[0:00] good afternoon everybody it's like i'm talking to a classroom uh i've got a couple announcements [0:10] then love to take some questions for you uh when the president came in for this term he commented [0:15] on how challenging it had been to deal with the affordability crisis in pharmaceutical medications [0:20] often commenting on the fact that he'd been able to reduce the price by one eighth of one percent [0:24] at one point in the first administration and he thought that was a massive achievement because [0:29] it's usually just skyrocketing and it's an important issue for a lot of folks in america because [0:35] almost one in three americans when they go to a pharmacy to pick up a medication [0:39] that their doctors prescribe for them leaves empty-handed because they can't afford the [0:43] medication especially for branded products and part of the reason for this it's unknown to a lot [0:48] of americans but it's well recognized by the president this administration is that our drug [0:51] prices are about three times higher on average than the same drugs made in the same facilities in the [0:57] same american factories oftentimes than they are charging patients overseas in europe asia and [1:04] other parts of the world it's global freeloading it's wrong president demanded that we change it and as [1:10] most of you know we spent much of last year negotiating with the 17 largest pharmaceutical companies that [1:16] drive over 80 percent of the entire business in branded pharmaceuticals and every single one of them [1:20] agreed uh to a most favored nation drug pricing strategy which simply stated means that these [1:25] medications um especially going into the future will be priced at the same amount as the rest of [1:31] the world it doesn't mean price fixing we're not telling pharmaceutical companies what to charge [1:35] we're saying to them whatever you charge us you got to charge the other folks which means we might [1:40] be able to help you overseas to get better pricing so that uh you can make up some of the losses that [1:44] you'll experience here and uh the uh council economic advisors estimated that the benefit of the [1:50] president's negotiated program is about 600 billion dollars over the next 10 years 600 billion dollars [1:56] of savings the question then becomes how do you actually get that savings to the american people [1:59] and we work together with some wonderful folks jojembia and corstein who have been building the trump [2:05] rx.gov site and i've got an announcement that today we are adding 160 more drugs to this site [2:12] now the site already has 700 or so or 600 or so drugs so it's going to take it over 750 total [2:19] but uh that is an important number for other reasons it means that four out of five medications [2:24] that are picked up by americans going into that same drugstore that i mentioned earlier [2:29] now have the opportunity to double check that the price they're getting in that drugstore wherever [2:33] they're buying it from is the best price out there so it's a transparency site it gives everybody the [2:38] ability to make important decisions about medications they're purchasing with full knowledge [2:43] of what the cost of those medications are and that's important because transparency drives [2:48] cost-effective changes in how we procure and consume products you would never buy a car without knowing [2:53] the cost of the car some of these medications cost what a car costs and so these are important [2:57] assets for the american people to have i'll put some numbers on this in the two weeks since we did the [3:03] last event with the president on this topic we've now up to about 12 million unique visitors to the [3:10] site estimated saves savings are about 500 million dollars and again climbing rapidly as more americans [3:16] learn about the program and it is our great hope and and belief that the average american before they [3:23] make a purchasing decision for a pharmaceutical product will start using trumprx.gov as a standard as a [3:29] baseline to take advantage of something that's been given to you there's no money made from this site [3:34] the government does not charge money to people using this site it's an opportunity for you to be in [3:39] power that's stated i want to add to that one additional insight that some of you would like to hear which [3:46] is that starting on july 1st the the patients on beneficiaries on medicare who are eligible for glp products [3:54] the weight loss products that the president speaks of frequently will be allowed to obtain those products [3:59] for 50 a month now the list prices you know for these drugs is well over a thousand dollars a month we've been [4:05] working hard to push down on these prices to make sure that these medications which can be life-changing and [4:10] even life savings because of their impact on weight loss and downstream complications like diabetes and hypertension [4:16] and all the things that they cause like kidney failure heart disease and and strokes and and dementia [4:21] given cancers all those risk factors are going to be mitigated we believe if these medications are used correctly and so when doctors prescribe them [4:29] medicare beneficiaries will be able to obtain them for fifty dollars a month and we are hopeful that over the next few years we will show an actual savings to the american taxpayer if these medications are used correctly and appropriately and consistently so folks get the weight loss they desire with the downstream benefits that i mentioned earlier [4:47] i also want to touch briefly on the crushing of fraud waste and abuse made possible by the vice president's anti-fraud task force [4:55] the white house task force has been aggressively going after all of government approach [5:00] i'll speak personally as the person charged with us the medicare medicaid services when we identify by looking at the data that which we have plenty of [5:08] that there's an aberrancy in how these bills are coming into us so there might be fraud there [5:13] it's incredibly empowering for us to quickly call the office of inspector general or the fbi the department [5:18] of justice and to have todd blanch call back and say here's what we're going to do about what you just [5:23] observed or call scott best in the treasury and say we need forensic accounting something is going on here [5:28] where are they hiding the money and i want to emphasize that this is sophisticated work because our opponents [5:33] are extraordinarily uh sophisticated in their attacks on our system they just need to have a medicare [5:39] beneficiary number or some of their id which is basically a credit card and they can begin charging [5:43] against the federal tax dollars that go into medicare and medicaid that's one of the reasons [5:48] we're seeing such high amounts of fraud in different parts of the country and we believe there are organized [5:53] criminal groups behind some of these endeavors so i wanted to walk you through a couple of these [5:58] examples because our goal is to stop the money from ever leaving the building that is the best way to protect [6:03] the american taxpayer as you know we were in minnesota last week where the largest autism uh [6:10] takedown occurred a mother and a daughter adult daughter were accused of tens of millions of dollars [6:15] of theft uh and i just to put this in perspective the reason these are so important is with you defraud the [6:21] system you don't just take money out of the system people steal your money the money from our most vulnerable [6:27] americans are going to steal their health they'll steal their life and that's what we've been seeing in [6:31] some of these takedowns unfortunately when these events don't happen in a timely fashion you lose [6:36] the whole program so in minnesota the state itself stopped non-emergency medical transportation which [6:41] is when you need someone to take you to the doctor's appointment they cut the whole program it's gone [6:45] it's finished because they could not deal with the fraud it went from an estimated million dollars [6:50] a year how much can it cost to take a car to a doctor's office to over a hundred million dollars a [6:55] year so they killed the program and that of course we believe because it doesn't provide [6:59] i think the kind of care we desire uh for our fellow americans can be problematic we don't want [7:05] that to happen in other endeavors as well so we've been working with the state of minnesota we're not [7:09] happy with some of the things we've been encountering as we look at their receipts on the services they [7:14] provided which is why we deferred 350 million dollars to the state of minnesota and we're waiting to hear [7:19] feedback from them other states have also been problematic california comes to mind where we've made [7:24] several trips of late one-third of all of the hospice in the entire country and hospice is a [7:29] precious beautiful program built in the 80s to take care of people with dignity in the last months of [7:34] their life classically someone has metastatic cancer they're going to die it's going to happen in a few [7:39] months you give up your medicare because why would you want medicare you don't need all those things [7:43] take hospice instead but that trade has risks with it if you don't actually have a lethal problem [7:48] and when one-third of all the hospices in the entire country are in los angeles not even california and [7:53] los angeles that creates issues first of all it's not plausible but it also means someone's been [7:58] ignoring the problem and in fact there was a call four years ago by the state auditor in california [8:03] to address these problems it was not managed so our agency has now suspended payments to 850 almost half [8:10] of all the hospices in california now have been suspended but they're no longer being paid and [8:16] we're going to keep aggressively going at this problem because when we go after hospice in california [8:20] guess what happens hospice in nevada went up sevenfold hospice in arizona hospice in texas [8:24] they've all gone up these calendars run the other areas i just learned this morning in california [8:31] and it's the most common job in new york again this defies belief that you can get that much growth [8:37] in single sectors but these are well-paid jobs uh that have become now ubiquitously available there's [8:43] not been strong guard rails the last administration did not think that this was an important endpoint the [8:49] endpoint was enrolling people and getting people onto these different programs and that has led [8:53] to a tremendous opportunity for corrupting the system and that's what we're witnessing with that [8:58] in mind there's lots we can do to fix these problems we've been aggressively going after states red and [9:03] blue we wrote a letter to florida the difference by the way was florida responded by saying we know we [9:08] have a problem we're going to double down we want a moratorium on all of our durable medical equipment [9:13] suppliers and why because there are twice as many durable medical equipment suppliers in south [9:18] florida than mcdonald's again not really possible possible unless you're looking the other way [9:23] we're not looking the other way we're aggressively taking on these challenges and i'm going to [9:27] re-emphasize something that i'm hoping everyone appreciates but if you're defrauding our most [9:31] vulnerable citizens in america do not walk away from this threat run away from us because we're coming [9:36] after you all right uh i've got i've got give me one second i got i was i was actually given a cheat [9:41] sheet which you all know i got uh shelby the new new media take it away thanks um i actually wanted to ask about [9:48] that nationwide moratorium industry groups are really concerned about growth and employment [9:54] getting hurt if that moratorium expands beyond six months would you rule out an extension of that [10:01] moratorium or do you expect that it's going to be expanded i'm not going to rule out an extension [10:06] we have been talking to industry groups about these moratorium in fact just as for everybody watching [10:11] all of you as well we benefit from whistleblowers our most important whistleblowers have been members of [10:17] industry who know the game know how you can cheat it if you're unethical and they point out to us [10:23] when these problems occur so we do not want to hurt the folks who are earnestly involved in hospice [10:28] in durable medical equipment suppliers you know personal care services they're good people in [10:33] these businesses but we're going to slow down the growth of these sectors so we can get our arms [10:37] around the problem because it is of massive magnitude to us uh let me go to let's go over here go ahead [10:43] dr us thank you so much cara castronuma from glindale tv with two important questions that the american [10:48] people voted for i care deeply about many americans fear our future administration could reinstate [10:53] covet era vaccine mandates through medicare and medicaid funding would you support and create [10:58] reforms to prevent that from happening again what can you do during your remaining time at cms to [11:04] ensure americans are never forced to choose between their jobs and enforce vaccination well the president [11:09] uh talked about this a bit on friday uh with an executive order that uh desires to provide states [11:15] with better science to be able to make educated decisions it is it is an embarrassment that during [11:21] covid we allowed ideology uh and fear to dictate healthcare policy many clinicians at the time couldn't [11:29] understand where these ideas were coming from it certainly soured the american people on the trust that [11:34] their government had historically had in recommending public policy efforts the president argues and he's [11:39] right and secretary kennedy strongly believes we need gold standard science we need that science to [11:43] be able to help families make better decisions for themselves and state governments because these are [11:48] state uh driven issues usually especially mandates to make those decisions more wisely if we can do this [11:53] in the right way will be very empowering because who loves children the most their parents no matter what we [11:58] might say they're the ones who need to have the information they should have the ability to make the [12:02] wisest choices for their kids not based in fear but based in science steven let me go one at a time [12:10] if you asked multiple questions i only can answer one anyway so we'll come back i promise i'll [12:15] i talk quickly go ahead dr oz thank you and and i actually have two but you know we'll see what you'd like [12:21] i'll answer one pick pick one well the first is on most favored nations uh the the policy uh i was [12:28] hoping that you could explain why the administration thinks it's important to pass legislation [12:31] codifying these deals is the fear that a future president might walk away um into what you make [12:39] of the congressional pushback and also on um my tragedy derived from kratom president trump has [12:44] expressed interest you describe the debate within the administration on that let me answer the first [12:49] one because it's not a big debate on the second one the reality around uh the most favored nation drug [12:56] pricing is the president has dealt with the entire problem for this administration but these contracts [13:02] expire after this administration is done so like so many things the president is trying to do he's [13:07] trying to set it up for the next uh administration so that they don't have to fight the same battle [13:12] now it's going to be difficult for pharmaceutical companies to pull back but we still believe it [13:16] makes sense for congress to codify what we've been able to achieve because it's been so helpful [13:20] think about the 600 billion dollars of savings to the average american over the next 10 years [13:25] it's just a massive number that they voluntarily sort of gave back because the president went after [13:31] them and said you've got to deal with this problem and by the way when we got knocked in the door of [13:35] these pharmaceutical company leaders you know what they said we knew one day you'd come for us you [13:40] know they weren't surprised they knew that this couldn't continue so the president wants congress [13:44] which i know has a lot on his plate but there are ongoing discussions around the great health care [13:49] plan just last week the workforce committee uh pushed something out that is going to be on pbm reform [13:55] their pharmacy benefits management companies are the middlemen that often are involved between uh the [13:59] insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies so there's other parts of the [14:03] legislation moving forward but just to remind you the working the the great health care plan is [14:08] codifying most favored nation drug pricing so it lasts for decades into the future as we believe it [14:13] should this is all forward looking doesn't hurt these companies today just make sure america's [14:17] protected in the future we want plain english insurance policy so you can actually understand the [14:22] document that you're being given we want transparency so you go to a hospital to a doctor's office [14:27] that you actually know what you're getting i guess as a doctor when i prescribe something for you i [14:31] often don't know what it's going to cost you to pick up what i just told you to get these are [14:34] things that are fixable and the pharmacy benefits is another part of this let's go to let me i'm [14:39] going to buy yeah delhi wire mary thank you my colleague luke rosiac just reported and he's done a lot [14:45] on this uh his investigations into medicaid broad and home health have repeatedly brought him to foreign [14:50] board health care operators is cms tracking what percentage of home health recipients are refugees [14:56] for foreign born and why are foreigners using these programs at such higher rates than for americans [15:02] well we are tracking uh illegal immigrants taking advantage of all health care plans we've already [15:07] recouped we've actually told california they owe us two billion dollars we've got a half of it back [15:11] already i'm confident we'll get the rest because they have state-based programs that we don't have a [15:17] lot of visibility into but because of the working families tax legislation and other rulemaking we're no [15:22] longer allowing foreign uh folks who are here illegally to benefit from these programs just [15:27] to put in context in california if you're on medi-cal the medicaid program in california [15:32] until this administration you got full dental and full vision benefits now i'm i'm for those benefits i [15:40] like them but we don't give that to medicare patients and so we should at least be equitable and [15:44] all of us together should decide what we are going to do as a nation so if we as a country decide we're [15:49] going to go in one direction you can't have states splintering off if they're going to spend the [15:53] other people's money the fraud for example that i'm talking about and the use of money for illegal [15:57] immigrants the people who pay that bill when it for example the largesse of california allows folks to [16:02] get benefits that the rest of the country doesn't think is appropriate for illegal immigrants or home [16:06] health care providers that money is paid by folks who are taxpayers in new mexico which is a blue state [16:12] and mississippi a red state so this is not partisan everybody is taxed extra and has to put more into the [16:18] kitty because some states are doing things that we don't think as a country well we would like to [16:22] have happen that's why this administration has been so dogged in this issue and why the president [16:26] has been so aggressive on ebola if kenya does end up blocking the u.s quarantine facility there and [16:35] it seems like they might since the kenyan courts are delaying it where will americans who have been [16:39] exposed end up going and then why can't they just come to the united states i mean i think you would [16:45] probably agree that the u.s has pretty good health care here so where will they go and why not to [16:50] the u.s jennifer the the main issue of having a facility close to the uh democratic republic of [16:56] the congo is if a patient is sick again i'll speak as a heart doctor i want to take the patient to the [17:00] or that's right next door to the room they're sick and not to the building next to them or to three [17:05] buildings two blocks away because that time is precious to us you have a golden hour many of these [17:10] instances around trauma but for illnesses it's also relatively short so we are confident and the [17:15] state department's working on this uh diligently that that they're going to be able to work out [17:19] something uh with kenya there has already been a fair amount of of uh of communication around this [17:24] issue we have the and that's about there's a uk base there we have other people who might be willing [17:30] to welcome us and we have our german colleagues as well so there's many places we can send folks but [17:35] sending them across the world especially we're not sure what's going on with them is probably not the [17:39] wisest move in red take it away thank you so much alina shirazi from the daily mail this is the fourth [17:44] checkup that the president has had he's supposed to have one a year he's had several ct heart scans [17:51] what are the doctors looking for and second question i think you might like this one better [17:55] who has been your favorite uh cabinet secretary so far to do the briefings at the podium huh that may [18:03] not be my favorite question i mean they're all they're all obviously different i think scott beston's [18:08] dry humor is fabulous uh marco is just an earnestly funny person we can tell all kinds of stories about [18:14] marco's entertaining commentary uh i think jd was spectacular you know he's just very on his game [18:21] understands the issues and he understands the american people which is i appreciated his presentation [18:25] so much uh and i did watch them all by the way just to prepare i'm a doctor i try to do my homework [18:29] i prepped for the case um the uh the the first issue was about ebola no about uh he's had four [18:39] already the president's supposed to have one a year yeah so i i actually have talked to the president [18:45] about what he's sent to all of you and i think it's just a routine regular exam uh you remember i had the [18:51] president on my show 10 years ago and he also presented records and at the time i was stunned at how [18:57] well he was doing because so many of these numbers naturally over time will start going in the wrong [19:02] direction but if you look at these records uh they're spectacular you know his cholesterol his [19:06] blood pressure all the numbers are certain in excellent uh parameters his ability and listen i [19:11] work with him frequently many of you get to see him almost every day that amount of energy and that [19:17] amount of mental acuity does not exist in a vacuum you have to have a vessel to carry it and the [19:22] president has uh unique ability to just keep going at all hours of the day with remarkable strength [19:27] let's go right behind you so the administration has been stressing reshoring manufacturing [19:34] pharmaceutical manufacturing is part of that from those announcement of those 17 uh pharmaceutical [19:39] companies what's the timeline that we could see those projects come to fruition is it summer [19:43] is it end of this year well these companies are already making investments in america some are [19:48] ongoing some have announced i went to a ribbon cutting and one in charlottesville recently [19:52] and so there's a lot of investment coming to america but think about what you would do if [19:56] you're a pharma executive if you're a pharma executive and america is open for business [20:00] and we're trying to support innovation you know saving people from you know cancer autoimmune problems [20:06] dementia all these different you want to be where the action is so these companies are coming here [20:11] it's actually a brain drain from europe in particular but other parts of the world as well of [20:15] companies who want to come here so it's not just that we're already going it's going to get bigger [20:19] and bigger and louder no the jobs are starting as we when the first time you hire someone to build a [20:24] plan for you we have a job if you're asking for people with picks and and helmets that's also [20:28] coming quickly but again i've been to facilities are already under construction so they're starting [20:33] and it will get and the president and i visited a facility uh in uh cincinnati a few months ago that [20:39] again they're already in there they already have the facility they're already running the facility [20:43] they're making additional investments to upgrade their program yes ma'am thank you so much i know [20:48] this isn't your wheelhouse uh but you are speaking on behalf of the white house today can you respond [20:53] to any of the criticism from republicans on president trump's decision to tap bill pulte who has no known [21:00] intelligence experience as acting dni well i think bill is a a great guy i know him socially i've not [21:07] worked with him uh in his current job and uh but i chose i do trust the president's judgment um he is [21:12] a very sharp uh quick and quick study of uh people uh their emotional uh with abilities and their ability [21:20] to persevere in the in the face of hardship so i have confidence in his decision yes back on ebola um [21:27] given the world cup coming up and millions of visitors coming to the united states on the u.s [21:31] preparation for this who is in charge of proactive surveillance measures and what type of [21:37] surveillance will the united states be doing for visitors coming in will that be expanded beyond [21:42] the drc uganda and sudan you describe what is in place knowing this influx of people coming soon so [21:48] jay bartashari who i spoke to this morning uh who is our brilliant brilliant leader of the nih but also [21:53] cdc now is running this program he's got a lot of high help from dr heidi overton and many others at [21:59] the white house so it's a well-constructed game plan uh they aggressively got into and they're funding [22:05] now a lot of the the treatments that are being offered in uh the drc and uh the kenya facility [22:11] is just an extra way for us to take folks who are americans uh who need help but we have very [22:16] purposefully put up testing tools and mechanisms at the major airports for that people will be [22:21] traveling through i have great confidence in jay's ability he's a brilliant scientist and knows a lot [22:26] about viruses you want one of the most important papers really describing the the true reality what was [22:31] happening during covet early in the pandemic it got him in the hot water because it was not convenient [22:35] to hear it but he's a brave man who will make the right decisions to be transparent about in pink [22:41] just back to the question about bill t congressional statute says any appointee for the position of the [22:47] director of national intelligence shall have extensive national security expertise [22:52] what extensive national security expertise does he have ma'am you're asking me a question that's out of [22:56] my lane i'm so focused on making sure americans are healthy that i have not been looking at what other [23:00] agencies are at that yes [23:02] uh... [23:02] uh... [23:04] absolutely that [23:05] dr i think you're not sure [23:08] this is not very hot dot [23:10] sir [23:11] thank you all right [23:13] okay uh... [23:14] that was fun [23:15] uh... [23:17] uh... doctor uh... such as little you said that uh... should be [23:21] uh... surprising to people that personal care services and that [23:24] uh... you see [23:26] now by twofold most common job in california and most common job [23:31] In New York, the U.S. health care industry has been growing rapidly, 7% to 8% annually. [23:39] It's an estimated $5.3 trillion in growth. [23:43] Health care accounts for about 18% of GDP. [23:46] Why should people be surprised that in two of the most populous states in the country, [23:52] a health care-related job like that would be a common job when it is, again, one of the fastest growing and continuously growing industries in the U.S.? [24:06] I mean, what's going on here? [24:08] The primary difference between paying for a hernia operation and paying someone to be a personal care service is the reason it's concerning to us. [24:16] If you're having a hernia operation, you have a scar, so I know you got something. [24:19] And you have a doctor who was licensed, and you had it done in a facility that's also credentialed and has been inspected. [24:25] When you get personal care services, it's an unlicensed person in an unmonitored setting promising they did something. [24:32] That's a lot of handshakes and, you know, finger-crossing and hoping that it worked out okay. [24:37] This is a problem that has been growing for years. [24:40] It's just gotten now to a crisis mode. [24:42] It is just difficult to imagine that it's twice as many jobs as anything else. [24:46] It's not that health care jobs aren't important. [24:48] Of course they are. [24:48] But if we put guardrails around these programs, we'll allow them to thrive. [24:53] I'm here because I love Medicaid. [24:56] The president has already said he loves and cherishes Medicaid and Medicare. [25:00] These are, Medicaid in particular, is the ultimate payer of last resort. [25:04] We cannot allow these programs to be defrauded into a turmoil that they cannot pull up from. [25:12] And so we, if we love these programs, will make the difficult decisions. [25:15] Let me pivot from that just to describe what came out yesterday, which is the work requirement rule that our agency, and Dan Brillman and Caprice Knapp did a fantastic job writing this, dealt with a lot of states. [25:25] But as you know, in the working families tax legislation, which I believe saved Medicaid. [25:30] And the reason I say that is our actuarials told us we would be spending 5.4 trillion more dollars for this program over the next decade if we didn't deal with some of the legalized money laundering that was siphoning money out of the program. [25:44] Part of the reason that this is so attractive to states is they could take money in ways that it was not designed to be used, paying people along the way, so they didn't have to pay for it themselves. [25:54] I get it. [25:55] I understand why the governors did it, but it didn't align the president with the governors. [25:59] With that law, we also had a work requirement rule. [26:02] Now, what was that? [26:02] The work requirement was based on concepts that date back from when Bill Clinton was president with the temporary assistance for needy families. [26:08] When the Democratic administration said the fraud is getting so bad, the abuse so big in these programs, we need to clean them up. [26:16] We need to get people to try to work. [26:17] It's a path to prosperity. [26:19] I believe, I hope you share this belief, that we're put on this earth with agency to change our future, change the country's future to make the planet a better place. [26:27] We're put here to make a difference. [26:29] But if you're sitting at home, which is true for the millions of people who are able-bodied on Medicaid, on average, you're spending 6.1 hours watching television or just hanging around. [26:42] That's not why you're here. [26:43] So as a path to prosperity, Congress, very wise, he said, let's get you back into the workforce. [26:48] Let's require you to get free health care coverage to be able to work for 20 hours a week or volunteer to make up the difference if you haven't worked 20 hours or get an education, just participate. [27:01] And so that rule came out. [27:03] It's a, I think, beautifully written effort to try to define for our nation what your part of the puzzle is. [27:10] Because if you are going to get something that are of value from the American people, there should be some obligation, if you're able to, if you're not able to, if you're disabled, if you're, you know, one of the categories that are well-defined in general, not able to work, it's different. [27:23] But if you can work, you should get up and work again, because that's historically how it always was. [27:27] In 1961, in 1965, rather, when Medicaid was created, that was the deal. [27:32] There were 11 million people in the program. [27:34] We've perverted that. [27:35] Yes, sir. [27:36] Doctor, thank you. [27:37] Since you're here speaking on behalf of the administration, part of the reason we're asking about the president's decision to appoint Bill Pulte to be the head of the director of the head of national intelligence is it's been four hours and we've been asking the White House why he's qualified to do so. [27:50] You're a heart surgeon or a heart doctor? [27:53] Yeah. [27:53] Would you recommend a patient go see someone who isn't? [27:57] You're asking the question with the premise that Bill Pulte is not qualified. [28:00] I don't know anything about his situation. [28:02] And I appreciate you want an answer. [28:03] I'm not going to be the one giving it to you. [28:04] Go ahead. [28:05] Thank you so much. [28:06] This is Elizabeth Fidelis Signal. [28:07] What are you doing, first of all, to remove any illegal immigrants who are still receiving Medicaid from the program? [28:13] You mentioned earlier that's something you've been working on. [28:15] And then, secondly, Medicaid reimbursement for Planned Parenthood will resume July 4th unless Congress acts to extend the Women's Beautiful Bill. [28:22] As CMS Administrator, what's your message to Congress on that? [28:26] On the illegal immigrant side, I'll take one question at a time if you don't mind. [28:29] Just a lot of folks. [28:29] We have, because we now can do it, a very straightforward way for the 44 states that don't have state-based Medicaid plans for us to be able to audit if the people that we're paying for are citizens or not. [28:42] In the state-based plans, like I mentioned, in California, and there's a few other states, Colorado, Washington, etc., Illinois, they have their own plans. [28:50] So we have to now audit their plans. [28:52] This is a challenge. [28:53] And that's why, before I came here, I met with a bunch of Medicaid directors from many states, red and blue. [28:59] And they want us to help rebuild the tech infrastructure of Medicaid in this country. [29:05] Imagine 50 balkanized programs. [29:07] You spend $20 billion a year, $20 billion for tech infrastructure, and we're not getting our money's worth. [29:14] So we're putting $200 million more because of the working families tax cut legislation. [29:18] We've negotiated, Dan Brillman did, $600 million of in-kind contributions from the vendors to be able to get the work requirement done in an effective way. [29:26] But I think it's the first step of a much larger national opportunity to fix how data flows. [29:31] And one bit more bit on this, Medicare, Medicare's billing system, which many of your relatives are using, was a 1979-era COBOL-based system. [29:41] I don't even have engineers who know how to use that system. [29:45] And so if you're going to really use cloud-based tools, if you want to use technology to help Americans connect better with the health care system, you have to update them. [29:53] The president has been supportive of this, so we are upgrading the system. [29:56] And my hope is that we can use the tech transformation tools of this government to bring people to work with us from the private sector. [30:03] And every major tech company is a partner of ours. [30:05] Now I'm pledging 700. [30:07] Yes, go ahead. [30:09] Hey, I just wanted to follow up on her question behind me. [30:12] If the president's in such perfect health, why does he keep going back in for checkups? [30:16] I think he likes the results. [30:17] He does really well. [30:19] He aces the test every single day. [30:21] And I do actually believe that he is curious to make sure everything is going in the right direction. [30:27] He's a very meticulous person in so many ways that are often underappreciated. [30:32] But for him to want to know all the numbers and keep on top of him, it's the same reason he calls people at odd hours, because something's on his mind and he wants to deal with it. [30:39] Yes, in purple. [30:40] I want to talk about the UFC fight here at the White House next week. [30:44] The president recently invested in the parent company of UFC. [30:48] Is it a conflict of interest for him to be promoting this event while he's invested in UFC's parent company? [30:54] I don't think the president sits at the Oval Office and makes individual investment decisions. [30:57] But I don't know about that issue. [30:59] But knowing him, I suspect someone else is making those decisions for him. [31:03] Go ahead. [31:05] Thank you, Dr. Oz. [31:06] The Obamacare subsidies expired earlier this year. [31:09] What negative consequences have you seen? [31:12] And do you see any policy adjustments that need to be made? [31:15] Let's talk about Obamacare. [31:17] Let's take a step back. [31:18] 2015, 16, 17, 18, 2020, there were 9 million people on Obamacare. [31:25] 9 million. [31:26] Today, it's more than 20 million. [31:28] Like, what happened? [31:29] What happened was we completely took the guardrails off. [31:32] And I know this because I'm working in the agency that actually was told to take the guardrails off. [31:36] And because there wasn't an earnest desire to keep track of whether you were appropriately on it or not, [31:42] but more importantly, just get the number to where we all feel good about ourselves, [31:46] we had massive increases of people joining the program. [31:49] We believe that 35%, roughly, of the people that are using the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare exchanges, [31:57] because they've never used the program once, they've never filed a claim, may not be legit. [32:03] 5, 6 million people we could be paying premiums for because they don't have to contribute anything. [32:09] So they don't even know they're getting it. [32:10] These are people who have Medicaid and someone, often a broker, is just honestly enrolling them in an Affordable Care Act. [32:17] Or they're in two states at once getting full insurance paid for by us in multiple states at once. [32:23] So we have evaluated these numbers. [32:25] They are extremely concerning. [32:26] There's a very strong effort by us. [32:29] We actually made a rule two weeks ago that starts the process. [32:32] We had tried to do this when we first came into office. [32:35] A court enjoined us. [32:36] They did not feel we'd follow appropriate APA guidelines, government guidelines. [32:41] And so we redid it and now went back out again. [32:44] But if you care about the ACA, then you'll want us to take the fraud out. [32:48] And let me just take a step back. [32:49] If we want you to go back to work on Medicaid, what's going to happen? [32:53] You're going to start making money. [32:54] As you make money, you're going to make enough money. [32:55] You get above the poverty level. [32:56] You're going to want to buy an Affordable Care Act product. [32:59] Or private industry, commercial insurers are going to start using it. [33:03] That's a good thing. [33:04] We're getting America back up. [33:05] They're getting into work, getting them into the stratosphere, building prosperity. [33:08] So we want these programs to work together. [33:11] But if you've got millions of people, literally, who are getting insurance that they don't want, [33:16] they don't even know they have it, and we're all paying for it, [33:18] that's tens of billions of dollars worth throwing away. [33:21] That increases premiums for everybody. [33:23] It drives affordability down. [33:25] We're not going to tolerate it anymore. [33:26] Sir, in the back. [33:27] In the mirror. [33:27] Yes. [33:28] Thank you so much, Dr. Rose. [33:30] You're going to have to see you. [33:30] I'm sorry. [33:31] I lost the question because I'm sorry. [33:32] Only one question. [33:33] It doesn't matter. [33:34] One question. [33:35] Okay. [33:35] So I'm going to ask you, you know, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, [33:40] an American president has a good relation. [33:42] And there's a report they are going to meet in Turkey and the United States game in Los Angeles. [33:48] Have you heard about it? [33:49] And also there's a NATO summit in Turkey in July. [33:54] So you're a Turkish-American. [33:56] I don't know. [33:56] Do you have any idea? [33:57] Are you going to join? [33:58] And what you're thinking about Erdogan and Trump relations? [34:02] I have no idea about these meetings. [34:03] I've not been invited to anything. [34:05] I suspect I won't be invited to everything because I've got a lot of work to do here. [34:08] I feel like right there. [34:09] Go ahead. [34:10] Jordan Conrad, Gateway Pundit. [34:12] You know, back to the illegal aliens on Medicare and Medicaid. [34:16] Last October, you announced that you had found over $1 billion in federal tax dollars going to illegal aliens. [34:23] How much money, how much has that amount increased as of today? [34:27] And, you know, it's kind of like fish in a barrel. [34:29] Are these people being referred to immigration for prosecution and deportation? [34:35] The number has doubled from what I said last year. [34:37] We're about $2 billion. [34:39] The good news is that many states realize this is a problem and they themselves have stopped doing this. [34:43] Listen, it's the same basic story again and again. [34:46] We as a nation make a decision because we're one people. [34:49] Individual states have to take that decision and use it to the best of their ability. [34:53] Some states don't do as good a job as other states. [34:55] That's why we're looking to individual states for leadership, for better ideas, to deal with many of these social problems that unfortunately begin to pile up over time. [35:04] And they threaten the very foundation of our social net that supports all of us. [35:10] That's why this matters so much. [35:11] If you quiz the vice president, he grew up in an environment where he saw people abuse this. [35:16] I know that's the case of people who are in the task force right now, the anti-fraud White House task force. [35:20] So there's a passion about this, and for good reason. [35:24] The president calls the vice president Elliot Ness. [35:27] He likes the fact that he's taking this seriously. [35:30] He's going at it and he's doing what's best for the American people by making some tough decisions. [35:34] One last question. [35:35] Take it away. [35:35] Back to Bill Pulte, but with the national security angle. [35:42] The president has pushed very hard to renew FISA, Section 702. [35:46] It expires in 10 days, just ahead of the World Cup. [35:50] And there's this heightened threat environment with the war in the Middle East. [35:54] We've heard all these intel agencies talk about the threat environment these days and how people are very concerned about it. [35:58] On Capitol Hill, you've had lawmakers today raising concern about Bill Pulte and on the Democrat side, questioning his ability to carry out that role fairly and not weaponize it. [36:13] What can you say about to allay their concerns? [36:17] And can you also answer a question that was posed by Susan Collins about whether Pulte has a security clearance himself? [36:23] I don't know anything more about Bill Pulte than you do. [36:26] I did not think that would be one of the questions that would even come up here. [36:29] I hadn't even heard the news when I walked out. [36:31] Okay, let me leave you with, we have one last question, but I do want to, okay, go ahead, ask it. [36:39] I'll come to you. [36:40] I have a GOP question. [36:41] What's your question? [36:42] Do you have any medical advice with Americans out there that are suffering from a very serious ailment called Trump derangement syndrome? [36:49] I am concerned about folks who have focused their entire life energy on dislike of the president. [36:56] It's disheartening to see people lost in that way. [36:59] But, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's treating stupid is really hard. [37:05] And that becomes a real problem. [37:07] And these folks are off. [37:08] The GLP ones, I mean, let me just answer because I'm out of time. [37:12] A very quick one. Are American getting real-deal medication brand name like Vigove Ozampic or it will be generic on Trump-Rx at $50 monthly rate? [37:23] The Trump-Rx product is the real deal, the true API, the pharmaceutical product that's made by the two major providers right now, which are Novo Nordisk and Illily. [37:33] There are other companies coming into the space. [37:35] We have these products that are given by these companies as part of this deal. [37:39] So we'd like to use the real product to be able to satisfy the needs of the American consumer. [37:43] This is the brand name. [37:43] It's the brand name. [37:45] Last question from the middle. [37:47] Last question. Take it away. [37:48] Thank you, Dr. Oz. [37:51] So Kenya basically has stopped, you know, has asked the U.S. not to build the quarantine facility there. [38:01] And the people, the responders from here who are supposed to go there, [38:06] do you think the Trump administration's policy of not allowing people who are exposed, Americans who are exposed to the virus, [38:15] come back to the U.S. will dissuade these responders from going there? [38:19] No, I think we're going to work out with Secretary Rubio's leadership a very favorable arrangement with Kenya. [38:25] I've been to Kenya. It's a beautiful country, very sophisticated people. [38:29] They're going to do the right thing for everybody. [38:31] And I think it's a perfect solution. [38:32] I thank you very much for letting me participate. [38:34] God bless you all. Take care. [38:35] Microplastics.