CNN’s Dana Bash tried to elicit a promise from Dr. Mehmet Oz on Sunday’s State of the Union that the Trump administration will make sure Americans will be able to afford their health insurance costs, which are set to skyrocket in price by the end of the year.
Some 45 million Americans who purchase their health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace with the help of tax credits have been bracing for the end of the subsidies as laid out in Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Bash asked Oz, who runs the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs, about the administration’s “plan to replace Obamacare.”
“I actually did not say I was going to replace Obamacare,” Oz corrected her, continuing:
What I said was there are many ideas out there. Some of them could replace Obamacare. Many of them will not. There’s tactics that we’re discussing right now. The shutdown just ended. We were held hostage, as you know, unable to even discuss this. We didn’t have actuaries in the offices. We didn’t have insurance experts. All those folks are back working full speed, and we are giving the president lots of options. We have reinsurance as an option, which is traditionally used to make insurance more affordable. We have tactics that would allow Americans to play a different role than they historically have played in this marketplace.
Bash then put Dr. Oz squarely on the spot — asking him flat out to promise Americans that they will still be able to afford health coverage even after the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire.
“If somebody is watching now, worried that they are not going to be able to afford insurance at the end of the year, are you making a promise that the president and Congress will make sure that they can?” Bash asked.
Dr. Oz stopped well short of making that pledge.
“I promise that the president is laser-focused on this,” Oz said. “It’s the main thing I talk with him about. Congress, as well, is all over this. We have got to find solutions that don’t just work at the end of this year, but work for years to come. And I do want to come back to this theme: We have ideas that will also drop the actual cost of care by putting pressure, downward pressure, on what we’re paying for medications. And that’s probably a very good example. If you have insurance coverage but your medications are also better priced, the insurance you buy is enough to buy those meds, you’re in pretty good shape.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
The post Dr. Oz Waffles After CNN’s Dana Bash Asks Him Flat Out to Promise Americans Will Be Able to Afford Their Health Coverage first appeared on Mediaite.
link