NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Wednesday asked Mehmet Oz — the former talk show host and heart surgeon who now runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — about President Donald Trump’s repeated claim, mockingly dubbed “MAGA Math,” that he’ll get pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices by more than 100%.
Welker aired a montage of Trump making the boasts, including promises to slash costs “by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%,” even though, as critics have repeatedly pointed out, it would essentially make medications free or even see people being paid to receive them.
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Then Welker asked Oz the obvious: “Cutting drug prices by 400%, anything over 100%, wouldn’t that effectively make them free? Is that a realistic goal from the president?”
Oz creatively replied: “The president does the calculation by saying, ‘OK, if a drug was $100 and you reduce it to $50, it’s 100% cheaper because you’re taking $50 off and left with only $50, so the amount you took off the price is equal to the amount that’s left. They’re equal so it’s 100%.’”
Welker pointed out that Trump has boasted about reducing drug prices by up to 1,500%. Oz fired back: “Well, if you take a drug that is $200 or $240 like we did last week and reduce it to $10, those are the numbers you’re talking about.”
He then pivoted to talking about how important it was to reduce drug prices.
Watch from the 21-minute mark here:
