Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz defended TrumpRx from its critics during the Tuesday edition of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” calling it “your government’s present to you.”
“Think of TrumpRx.gov like a transparency site,” Oz told viewers. “We don’t make any money on TrumpRx.gov. It’s your government’s present to you. All we ask is that you check the prices on TrumpRx.gov before you fulfill a prescription anywhere in the country because a lot of times their better prices will be available on the website. You can get a coupon. You could have it shipped to you. There’s lots of solutions.”
Oz joined “Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire to discuss TrumpRx’s addition of over 600 generic drugs to its catalog this week. During their conversation, Lemire asked Oz if he had a response to critics who have claimed that some of the prices listed on TrumpRx are actually higher than they are elsewhere.
“I’d love these critics to check the website today because, with the addition of seven times more medications yesterday and the inclusion of generic drugs for the first time, we believe we’re offering the best prices that you can find in America,” Oz said in response. “We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re just making it clear what the prices are.”
You can watch the full “Morning Joe” segment yourself below.
Oz insisted that the purpose of TrumpRx is to make Americans’ options clear and transparent to them, as well as help remove some of the “arbitrage” of inflated prescription drug prices.
“A lot of times you’ll go to your local drugstore trusting that the prices there are fair. It turns out the drugstore across the street’s got the same drug at half the price,” Oz continued, noting, “There’s lots of opportunities for arbitrage in the pharmaceutical space.”
“If you’re out there buying a car, there are a lot of ways for you to figure out if you’re getting the best price for that car,” Oz explained. “We’ve never had a solution like this for pharmaceutical products, which ends up being one of the most painful financial challenges to the American people.”
At the end of their conversation, Lemire asked the CMMS Administrator if he had a response to the recent surge of measles outbreaks across America in the wake of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s public, documented skepticism of vaccines.
“You should get your measles vaccine. This is an illness you don’t want to get. There has been an outbreak,” Oz advised. “If you’re debating about what to do in the vaccine arena, at least get your vaccine for measles.”
