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When Dr. Mehmet Oz sat down with Greta Van Susteren on The Record this week, he didn’t dodge the obvious: Obamacare as it stands is choking families with rising costs and bad incentives, and CMS is looking at real fixes that put patients first. Oz, now running CMS, spelled out a plainly conservative goal — reduce the cost of care and create better ways to pay so doctors are rewarded for results, not volume. For hardworking Americans who have been strapped with soaring premiums and deductibles, that is the kind of practical common-sense medicine Washington ought to deliver.
President Trump’s executive order on drug pricing immediately sharpened the debate, and Oz backed the move as a powerful corrective to decades of corporate pricing games that let Americans shoulder more of the burden. This administration’s plan to use international reference points and stronger buying power is exactly the sort of disruptive, populist action that conservatives should champion when markets have been distorted by foreign freeloading and domestic lobbying. The White House and CMS are finally putting the patient ahead of well-funded special interests that have made a fortune off American consumers.
Oz was blunt about the moral case: when poor kids skip lifesaving medications and seniors ration their blood thinners because they cannot afford them, the system is broken and the federal government has an obligation to fix it. He told viewers he expects American prices to come down while countries that have freeloaded on our innovation will be asked to pay more — a bold rebalancing that puts working families first. Expect fierce pushback from pharmaceutical lobbyists, but this administration appears ready to take that fight to protect American patients.
Beyond drug pricing, Oz emphasized payment reform as the lever that will actually drive down total costs: move away from fee-for-service and toward value, transparency, and accountability so providers coordinate care rather than billing for every test and procedure. CMS has the authority to tighten enrollment integrity and crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse — measures that save taxpayer dollars and keep the safety net for those who truly need it. If we want affordable care, we must stop rewarding overuse and start rewarding outcomes, and that requires both regulatory muscle and market-based solutions.
Conservatives should be honest: Obamacare expanded coverage but left many Americans with worthless plans they can’t afford to use. The answer is not more Washington mandates or another bailout for the insurance industrial complex; it’s competitive, transparent choices, true price discovery, and an uncompromising stance against fraud and foreign freeloading. Dr. Oz and the president are pushing a package of common-sense reforms that would finally align incentives for patients, doctors, and taxpayers — and that is something every patriot should support, regardless of the predictable tantrums from the political class and Big Pharma.
The road ahead will be contentious, and activists on the left will scream about “rationing” while lobbyists bargain for carve-outs. Patriots know better: protecting vulnerable Americans and lowering costs for families is not socialism, it is stewardship. It is time for Republicans in Congress to stop playing defense and instead get behind bold, market-smart reforms that put patients back in charge and make American health care sustainable for the next generation.
