The next is the transcript of an interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz, Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies administrator, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 3, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Change is coming for the nation’s Medicaid system as a part of the enactment of the Massive, Lovely Invoice. To assist us perceive what’s forward, we flip now to the Administrator of the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Good morning. Welcome to Face The Nation.
DR. MEHMET OZ: Thanks.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have obtained numerous work forward. I wish to begin on drug prices. The president put this 25% tariff on India, massive drug producer. The President’s commerce cope with the EU places a 15 p.c tariff on imported medicines from Europe. How do you cease the drug makers from passing alongside these prices to individuals on Medicare and Medicaid?
DR. MEHMET OZ: Effectively, the president’s letter on Thursday for many favored nation pricing is an effective instance of that, and he is been engaged on this tirelessly because the first administration. And simply to place this in context for most of the viewers, about two thirds of bankruptcies in America are brought on by well being care bills. A couple of third of individuals once they go to the pharmacy, they go away empty handed. They can not afford the treatment. So the President has mentioned, Sufficient international freeloading. We have been overlaying a lot of the event prices for brand new medication to treatment most cancers, cope with a lot of different sicknesses which are life threatening. It’s in time for the American public to grasp that we shouldn’t be paying thrice extra for the very same treatment in the identical field, made in the identical factories. The president’s saying, equalize it out. Let’s use a mannequin that is labored, for instance, for exterior threats, that is what NATO did. Everybody has to pay just a little extra. We’ll pay further too, however we cannot pay much more than everyone else, so they really have to boost their contributions, on this case, to an inner menace, which is sickness. We’ll pay rather less than America that far more Individuals can afford these drugs, and it is a truthful system for all the globe.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So this was declared in these letters that have been despatched out to 17 pharmaceutical firms this previous week, and it requires extending that to Medicaid drug costs. Is that supposed to offset what shall be, , cuts to Medicaid? And are you aware, , if the businesses are literally going to observe by means of on this, like, how do you really robust arm them into doing it?
DR. OZ: Effectively simply get the numbers appropriate. We’re placing 200 billion extra {dollars} into Medicaid. So we’re really investing—
MARGARET BRENNAN: —by the point when prices are going up, so.
DR. OZ: Prices are going up, however there’s been a 50 p.c enhance in the price of Medicaid over the past 5 years. So I am attempting to avoid wasting this stunning program, this noble effort, to assist of us giving them a hand up. And as you most likely collect, if Medicaid is not in a position to care for the individuals for whom it was designed, the younger kids, the daybreak of their life, these are the twilight of their life, the seniors and people who are disabled residing within the shadows, as Hubert Humphrey mentioned, then we’re not satisfying the elemental obligation of an ethical authorities. And this President has mentioned again and again that he believes that it’s the clever factor and the noble factor to assist those that are weak and each nice society does that, we will as effectively. So we will put money into Medicaid as is required, however we would like an acceptable return on that funding. One factor that Medicaid sufferers mustn’t face are drug costs they cannot afford.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Proper, how do you implement this? Pharmaceutical firms—
DR. OZ: Effectively, the pharmaceutical firms, should you sit them down quietly, Margaret, and we have accomplished that, and say you went into this enterprise in some unspecified time in the future, since you cared about individuals. I do know there’s many on the market shaking their heads, however that’s really the reality. Folks go into well being care, whether or not they’re pharmaceutical firms or insurance coverage firms or the PBMs or anyone within the area. Even on the CMS, probably the most spectacular factor to me in my new process, and the President has appointed me to, is the outstanding high quality of individuals inside the group, simply unbelievably gifted. They went into this job as a result of they care about well being care and about individuals. Someplace alongside the strains, individuals neglect. They put numbers forward of sufferers. And when that occurs, then you definitely begin operating into issues. We went to the pharmaceutical firms and we mentioned, you recognize this isn’t a good system. We shouldn’t be paying extra in America, thrice extra, to your merchandise than you cost in Europe. They get the joke. They perceive the fact of this downside. They’re partaking with us. We’re in the midst of these negotiations. The President has a singular energy to convene. We have accomplished it with coping with prior authorization, this heinous course of the place sufferers really feel like they’re attempting to get care from a physician. All the pieces’s being accomplished besides swiftly the arm of insurance coverage is available in and stops the entire course of for unknown causes for weeks, generally months. The insurance coverage firms, representing 80 p.c of the American public, obtained collectively and so they mentioned, as a result of we pushed them, we will cope with this. We are able to do the identical, I imagine, with the pharmaceutical business, with most favored nation pricing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you in regards to the modifications which are coming due to this new regulation to Medicaid, which is collectively administered between the feds and the states. There are main reduction- reductions to federal well being care spending right here, one of many modifications are these work necessities. It is about 20 hours per week, volunteer or work to qualify for well being care. What’s the steering you might be giving to states on easy methods to implement this? As a result of on this financial system, issues are extra sophisticated. Uber driver, impartial contractor, how do they present they work their 20 hours per week?
DR. OZ: Final weekend, I used to be on the Nationwide Governors Affiliation with Secretary Kennedy, who has been a giant advocate of labor as effectively. Each Democratic president and Republican president has mentioned that the inspiration of a wholesome welfare system of a social system of help is figure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Proper, however I am asking the way you really implement that and register it in order that people who find themselves working do qualify, and they do not get caught up in paperwork as a result of they did not file one thing on time.
DR. OZ: So long as we’re okay that folks ought to work and would wish to work, and it isn’t simply work, it is neighborhood engagement. They will go get educated, proper? They will care for relations. They will contribute in different methods, however work is a good way of doing and get you out of poverty if you’ll find jobs and elevate your self. There have been efforts to do that prior to now, however they have not been in a position to obtain what we are able to obtain, as a result of we’ve got applied sciences now. And we have invested already, as quickly because the invoice was signed, started pilots to attempt to exhibit that we are able to really do that accurately. Now we have pilots now in Louisiana and in Arizona, in each circumstances, inside seven minutes, you possibly can click on on the place you are working. You talked about Uber, you are an Uber driver. You click on that button in your cellphone. It simply takes you to your payroll supplier. To illustrate it is ADP. We then ask your permission, can we join with this payroll supplier to exhibit what you’ve got really been in a position to work and earn over the previous month? This additionally, by the way in which, confirms your eligibility. However there is a larger profit right here. When you do this, you are in, you are accomplished. Nevertheless, what if we take one step additional, Margaret? What if we transcend simply proving that you just tried the work to truly say, You already know what, you did not work sufficient, however we are able to really assist you by connecting you thru an employment workplace?
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you are still determining the know-how, however is not there an end-of-December deadline for lots of this stuff to be found out? And the way do you be sure that individuals do not get kicked off? As a result of within the state of Georgia, which already had work necessities, they’ve actually struggled to make this work.
DR. OZ: Effectively, a few issues. It isn’t the tip of December, it is finish of December a yr from now, and Georgia is apples and oranges. Georgia had a program just for individuals beneath the poverty degree, and for these individuals, in the event that they needed, they might elect to come back right into a system to assist them get jobs. There have been 50,000 discount in head rely of uninsured individuals within the general program within the final 5 years. Total, Georgia, 2 million much less uninsured individuals. So Georgia is utilizing numerous ways, and so they’re getting in the suitable path. I’d argue that when you have confidence within the American individuals and their need to take to supply to attempt to get a job, if we problem you to that. And keep in mind, should you’re an able-bodied particular person on Medicaid, you are spending 6.1 hours watching tv or leisure time, so you don’t need that—
MARGARET BRENNAN: —Effectively, KFF Well being Coverage discovered 92 p.c of grownup Medicaid recipients already are working. Or they’ve the carve out as a result of they should have caregivers, or they should do different issues.
DR. OZ: They’re positive. All they should do is there will be a easy app. In case you’ve already carved out, that is tremendous easy. In case you’re purported to be should you’re able-bodied and purported to be working, we wish to assist join you to the job market and get you into work. Now we have twice as many roles out there in America as individuals who appear to need them. The inspiration of labor isn’t just about fulfilling eligibility. The aim of well being care insurance coverage is to catalyze motion in the suitable path, to get you more healthy, to provide you company over your future, so that you acknowledge you matter, and you must have a job, due to this fact to exit and alter the world.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So there is a drug dependancy downside on this nation. How are these modifications going to influence people who find themselves on Medicaid in states like Kentucky, in states like West Virginia?
DR. OZ: In lots of cases, there are carve outs for folk who’ve substance use dysfunction issues. There are programs–
MARGARET BRENNAN: —How do they show that?
ADMINISTRATOR OZ: Effectively, they will—
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that this within the app?
DR. OZ: Sure, it will likely be within the app. The app, once more, that is being developed by the US Digital Service, led by Amy Gleason, who is a superb technologist. She and I have been with the President and Secretary Kennedy and the top of the czar for AI on this nation on Wednesday, speaking about general how we will change using well being know-how in America. We have to get into 2025 with well being know-how, as is true in each different sector. In case you’re watching the present proper now, you may be streaming media. You can take an Uber someplace, the rideshare. You can do an Airbnb. Expertise ought to make the system extra environment friendly. We must always have faith that it’s going to additionally permit us to do what all of us agree is feasible. If the entire problem to a piece requirement is that you do not have confidence in our capacity to perform it, that is a separate query, as a result of I do have faith within the American individuals, and we’ve got confidence we are able to pull this off. Have a look at the passport system, Margaret. Proper now, you possibly can go and get a passport in two weeks with out having to go to the put up workplace, ship footage, and all that is gone. It is fixable. Let’s use know-how.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I am nonetheless confused on how somebody who’s within the throes of substance abuse goes to make use of an app to say, I am within the throes of substance abuse each week, to file on on-line—
DR. OZ: —Once they go in to get their assist for his or her substance abuse therapy, assuming they are going for assistance on that, they will additionally get enrolled in, in these necessities, could be fulfilled. We wish to speak to them in as some ways as potential. It isn’t going to occur simply because we put an app on the market, you, you may have social staff and different people components who care rather a lot about this inhabitants, who’re coming collectively, however they should have some mechanism to report again. That simply has not been accomplished effectively.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Effectively, and that is extremely detailed, and that is why we needed to have you ever on. I’ve so many extra questions for you on rural hospitals and a few of the different criticisms. I’ve to depart it there for now. However thanks, Dr. Oz–
DR. OZ: Can I provide you with 30 seconds on rural hospitals, as a result of that is necessary. You’ve got 7 p.c of Medicaid cash going to rural hospitals. We’re placing 50 billion {dollars} the president needs us to, Congress needs to—
MARGARET BRENNAN: There are rather a lot questions on how you are going to duel that out, and whether or not you may have already made guarantees. Do you may have any specifics for us?
DR. OZ: Sure. Wait, wait, it should be, they will get the functions in early September. The cash is designed that will help you with workforce improvement, proper sizing the system and utilizing know-how to offer issues like telehealth that may change the world. Think about if we are able to change the way in which we take into consideration the supply of well being and make it extra about getting individuals wholesome to allow them to thrive and flourish and be absolutely current in their very own lives and as Individuals.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Dr Oz, we’ll go away it there. We’ll be again in a second.
