Dr. Mehmet Oz got his math completely wrong while trying to defend President Donald Trump on drug prices.
NBC’s Kristen Welker pointed out in an interview Wednesday night that Trump has repeatedly mentioned cutting drug prices by more than 100 percent, even throwing out mathematically impossible figures such as “1,200; 1,300; 1,400; 1,500 percent.” Welker asked Oz if making cuts of 100 percent or higher would essentially make drugs free.
“Is that a realistic goal from the president?” she asked. The former TV host failed to clear things up.
“The president does the calculation by saying, ‘Okay, if a drug was $100 and you reduce it to $50, it’s 100 percent 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 percent,” Oz replied.
Walker reminded Oz that Trump threw out 1,500 percent as one figure, and Oz doubled down in his reply.
“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. That stated, the bigger question we should be asking ourselves is why didn’t we do this earlier?” Oz said.
Oz’s explanation does not back up the president’s impossible numbers, nor does it reflect reality. Meanwhile, health care costs stand to go up significantly if Affordable Care Act tax subsidies expire at the end of the year, an issue at the center of the current government shutdown. Will the president offer a coherent solution, or keep throwing out numbers that don’t make sense?
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