President Donald Trump claimed Monday that Obamacare initially did not work — and its eventual success was all down to him.
“Ozempic costs 10 times more in the United States than in the rest of the developed world. Ten times more. Why? Why? What did we do? Suckers,” Trump said about the well-known weight loss drug as he announced an executive order involving prescription drug prices.
“But we never had a president that had the courage to do this. And nobody knew the system like I do. I mean, I've gotten to know this system so well, and I don't think it's fair that it benefits Obamacare. Obamacare is a failure. It's not a good health care,” Trump claimed
“It works. I made it work. I had an obligation to make it work. Or an obligation to let it die. I chose that we had to make it work. I had to make it as good as possible, and I had a choice. I could have let it fail or make it as good as possible. As good as possible means it was still not very good.”
Trump later added he was able “to cut drug prices by 80 or 90%” — and it was a launching board for more health care reforms by. congressional Republicans.
“We're going to maybe come up with something. I think this gives the Republicans a chance to actually do a health care that's much better than Obamacare for less money.”
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He later invited Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr Mehmet Oz, Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Markary to speak on drug prices. They all claimed they will be working to lower drug prices.
Sen. Chris Coons on (D-DE) immediately went on CNN to rail against the president for his Obamacare claims.
“Well, President Trump just said that he's the one that improved Obamacare, which is actually flat out wrong,” Coons said. “He tried over and over to repeal Obamacare when he was president the first time, and house Republicans are moving ahead this week with their bill, which President Trump is asking for, that would cut millions of Americans off of health care,” he said of the so-called “Big, beautiful bill.”
Coons went on to defend the work Democrats have done to save Obamacare. “In the last administration, Democrats worked hard to pass legislation that reduces prescription drug prices and caps the out-of-pocket costs for Americans. So President Biden and Democrats in the Senate made significant progress in capping and reducing drug prices in the last Congress.”
He added, “If this executive order has a positive impact on health care and on health care costs, that would be a good thing.”
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