Latest news with #DrOz
CBS News
03-08-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Transcript: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Aug. 3, 2025
The following is the transcript of an interview with Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 3, 2025. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to New Mexico's Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. She joins us from Santa Fe. Governor, two out of five New Mexicans are on Medicaid. You've got a lot of rural hospitals. Have you figured out how to implement everything Dr. Oz just laid out? GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: Absolutely not. There is no real way to implement this. It's more paperwork for everyone. It's more paperwork for federal government, for state governments, for county governments, for local hospitals, for independent providers. And you know what Americans really hate, Margaret? When you go to your primary care physician and you spend 20 minutes sitting at a chair, not even on the exam table, while they are inputting data into a computer. So this doesn't make any sense. We should be a society and a country that is connecting people to healthcare providers. I think the one thing that Dr. Oz represents that's a fair representation, is we should be healthier as Americans. All right. We need to be moving out of poverty. We need drug prices- we should talk about that, to come down. So go after insurance companies. Do manufacturing here. Make sure we can negotiate fair prices. Let states do that, because I guarantee you, we'll do a better job than the federal government. And lastly, get people early, easy access today, more than half, or about half, our small businesses don't even offer health care coverage. So you can get a job. but now what? MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, well, you said, though- in your state, because as a governor, you're going to have to figure this out. You have reserve cash from some oil and gas revenues, as I understand it, that have been put aside. Doesn't that show it is possible for the federal government to shift more responsibility back to the states? That's the argument conservatives are making. GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: They are and it's temporary. There is no way any state, including this one—which, frankly, I am really proud of, we are in really good financial shape that takes planning and effort. You know, our job projections continue to be met and exceed, unlike the federal jobs report, which is going in the opposite direction. So I don't know where all these jobs are going to be in this anemic economy. I mean, it's so bad. The last time it was this bad, I was in college, and let me tell you, that was a very long time ago. And so yes, temporarily we can do that. But you can't do it over the long haul. The lost minimally to New Mexico over less than a decade is between 12 and $13 billion dollars and when, not if, rural hospitals and local providers close their doors. I can do this better than any other state. The last governor completely canceled behavioral health. Six years later, we are still reeling from trying to rebuild. We put a billion dollars into behavioral health just this last legislative session. It is not so easy to rebuild something out of nothing. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the $50 billion Rural Health Care Fund under this Republican law is supposed to give people the— your—states like yours, the ability to come and say, we need this extra cash. Are you going to have to ask for that? GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: I'm going to ask for every dollar the federal government has put aside anywhere that benefits a New Mexican. So you got 50 billion. That's $1 billion for each state, if it was even. Do you know how much money it would take to shore up rural hospitals? More than a billion. And to put that in perspective—let me do this, it's a billion just for behavioral health, it's a billion plus just to keep people's coverage, it's another billion for prescription drugs, it's a billion dollars for rural provider delivery investments, and that's only 50 hospitals. You have hundreds of hospitals. Hundreds. 400 rural hospitals across America that will shutter. So that's the number at it is. We are- how do we pick these rural hospitals? And if you pick a Southeastern rural hospital in New Mexico, what about the rural hospital in western New Mexico. Economies fail. People have to move away. You don't have any OBGYN care. That whole area collapses, and they are reducing rural health care delivery by about 134 billion. So the 50 billion is just to make someone somewhere feel like they recognize that this is a disaster. $900 billion out of Medicaid is catastrophic, straight up. MARGARET BRENNAN: Governor, we ran through a lot of material here. I have more questions for you, but very quickly—can you tell me—you deployed the National Guard to counter unrest in New Mexico. How is that different from what the president did in California? GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM: Well, they're not policing. They're doing the back end work so that trained community policing, and members of that training, right—those local police officers, they're on the streets. What we have in this country is a shortage of police officers. What I have in New Mexico is a partnership. So they're doing all of the—they answer all of the emergency calls. They handle all the traffic clearance when we've got a crash. And it is working, we're beginning to see more productive fentanyl drug dealing high end arrests than we did without the guard. And I'm really proud of that work. This is about partnering and leveraging, not about indiscriminately going after individuals who have not committed serious crimes. MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you for your time today. 'Face the Nation' will be right back.
Telegraph
02-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Trump's 24-hour House GOP blitz to save his ‘big, beautiful bill'
Republican members of Congress trooped into the White House on Wednesday as Donald Trump tried to keep his domestic policy agenda on track and his 'big, beautiful, bill' moving through the House. First came the moderates, including members of the 'Main Street' caucus, who worry that cuts to the nation's social safety net will make it harder for them to hold on to their seats in next year's midterm elections. They were spotted by White House reporters arriving during the late morning. Dusty Johnson, chairman of the Main Street Caucus, said the president had been persuasive. 'Donald Trump is the best closer in the business, and we're going to get it done,' Mr Johnson told Politico. 'In the meetings that I was in, the president, I think, closed out just about everybody.' They were joined by JD Vance, the vice-president, and Dr Oz, the TV doctor who now serves as administrator for the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Mr Trump has set a July 4 deadline for the bill to reach his desk and be signed into law. But he and the party whips face a delicate balancing act in the House of Representatives to get it over the line. With a majority of 120 to 112 they can afford to lose only three votes while trying to hold together a wing that thinks the bill goes too far and a wing that thinks it does not go far enough. So although Mr Trump had nothing on his public schedule for the day, in reality he spent Wednesday working the phones between two two-hour meetings trying to nudge and cajole two very different groups of people. A more truculent crowd arrived next, the fiscal hawks and the hardline conservatives of the House Freedom Caucus. Their beef is that a bill packed with tax cuts, and which ring-fences key spending pledges, will add trillions of dollars to the national debt. On his way in, Rep Tim Burchett joked that he did not know if he was 'going in the White House or behind the woodshed'. Two hours later, he filmed a video as he was leaving the building. 'The president answered all our questions,' he said. 'Was very informative.' No sweeteners offered A source familiar with the meetings said Mr Trump, who revels in the role of dealmaker, had not offered any sweeteners. Instead, he had talked up the importance of getting the bill passed in the face of Democratic opposition and of advancing pledges he made to the electorate last year. 'The president is doing everything he can to make sure this bill gets passed,' said a senior White House official. His choice of the Independence Day national holiday deadline highlights the importance of legislation that encapsulates his entire domestic policy. It would extend his 2017 tax cuts, fund his immigration crackdown and strip out green-energy subsidies, while slashing the federal safety net. But its passage has been precarious. An earlier version passed the House by a single vote in May and Mr Vance had to use his casting vote to get an altered text through the deadlocked Senate on Tuesday. The latest version would a dd $3.4 trillion to the national debt during the next decade, according to non-partisan analysts, much to the horror of fiscal hawks. 'The Senate bill moved way far away from the House bill,' Andy Harris, the Republican Congressman who chairs the Right-wing Freedom Caucus, told CNBC. 'We should take the time to get this right.' The president used social media to keep up pressure. 'Nobody wants to talk about GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed,' Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. 'Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!' Conservatives circulated a memo setting out their opposition throughout the day. It spelt out concerns about the increase to the deficit, the way it 'watered down' cuts to green-energy subsidies and 'excessive pork' given to Alaska and Hawaii in order to smooth its passage through the Senate. After the White House meetings, Republicans huddled in closed door meetings on Capitol Hill as they plotted their next moves. Party leaders held open a series of procedural votes that left progress towards final approval stalled through the afternoon. Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, said he was trying to convince the holdouts to back the bill. 'We are working through everybody's issues and making sure that we can secure this vote. I feel very positive about the progress,' he told reporters.
Forbes
14-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Time For Medicare Advantage Leaders—Including Me—To Eat Our Own Cooking
Dr. Oz just turned 65 and became a Medicare beneficiary. Everyone who operates a Medicare plan ... More should be required to be one as well. In every industry, the best leaders live the experience of the customer. Car executives drive their own vehicles. Airline leaders occasionally fly coach. Restauranteurs eat from their own kitchen. But in healthcare—and specifically in Medicare Advantage (MA), which now serves more than 30 million Americans—the leaders designing these plans rarely, if ever, use them themselves. This disconnect breeds an empathy gap between decision-makers and the seniors whose lives and well-being depend on these products. It's time to close that gap. As Dr. Mehmet Oz turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare, he is in a unique position to lead the charge in fixing this blind spot. But I'm not letting myself off the hook either. As a current CEO of company that sells Medicare Advantage plans, I am proposing a standard that would apply to me and every other leader in this space: if you run a Medicare Advantage plan—or sit on its executive team that runs these plans—you should be required to enroll in that plan. No carve-outs. No executive-only exemptions. No platinum side-door coverage. For those of us under 65, the proposal would also require a structural change: expanding Medicare eligibility to allow MA plan executives early, voluntary enrollment in their own plans. We should not be allowed to claim ignorance or detachment simply because of our age. I want to be clear: if such an early-enrollment window existed, I would enroll myself. I should have to live under the same benefit design, customer service, and network constraints as every other member. Leaders like me—and my peers across the industry—must eat our own cooking.A Modest But Necessary Reform The proposal is simple but powerful: 1. All managed care CEOs and executive teams must enroll in their own MA plan. 2. Congress and CMS should create a new category of Medicare eligibility that allows executives under 65 to voluntarily enroll in their own MA plans in a 'test user' capacity. This is the only way for leadership to truly understand the member experience. 3. No waivers, no special coverage allowances. The goal is to force leadership to live the true plan reality: the prior authorizations, the formularies, the network restrictions, the call centers, the appeals It Matters—for Me, and for the Industry I don't make this proposal lightly—because it would apply to me, too. If this became law or industry standard tomorrow, I would sign up. And I believe most honest leaders would welcome the clarity and accountability it would bring. Here's why it matters:- Operational Truth: You only truly understand the friction points—customer service delays, billing errors, prescription denials—if you live them yourself.- Accountability: Plan leaders would no longer tolerate broken systems they themselves have to endure.- Culture Change: A company where the C-suite shares the same risks and frustrations as members cannot help but become more consumer-focused.- Public Trust: Medicare Advantage is under increasing scrutiny from policymakers and the public. This move would send a clear, ethical signal: we stand behind what we sell.- Policy Innovation: The best ideas for simplifying prior authorization, improving networks, and reducing out-of-pocket costs would come not from distant consultants—but from firsthand More 'Not For Me' Products Too much of healthcare is designed by people who never have to use it. Too many decisions are made in corporate conference rooms far removed from the lived experience of real patients. If Medicare Advantage is the future of healthcare for seniors—as so many believe—its architects must also live that future. That includes Dr. Oz. That includes every MA CEO. And that includes me. It's time for all of us to eat our own cooking.
Globe and Mail
31-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
B.C. ostriches set for cull have avian flu infection not seen elsewhere in Canada, agency says
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency plans to move ahead with a plan to cull ostriches in British Columbia, citing the birds have a genetic composition of avian influenza associated with a human infection in Ohio. The CFIA said in a statement released late Friday evening its National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease identified the current infection in the ostriches with a 'novel reassortment' not otherwise seen in Canada. 'This assortment includes the D1.3 genotype, which has been associated with a human infection in a poultry worker in Ohio,' the agency said. 'A human case of H5N1 in BC earlier this year required critical care, and an extended hospital stay for the patient, and there have been a number of human cases in the United States, including a fatality.' Ostriches that live at the Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, a remote community in B.C., are now the subject of international attention, including from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services who takes issue with the CFIA's plans to kill the nearly 400 birds. The ostriches have also garnered other forms of support in the U.S., such as from billionaire John Catsimatidis and Dr. Oz, an American TV physician who now runs medicare in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Dr. Oz offered to provide sanctuary to the birds at his Florida ranch but the farm owners would like to keep the birds in Canada. Last December, an outbreak began at the farm that killed 69 ostriches. In January, the CFIA said the rest of the flock would be 'depopulated.' This spring, the farm has challenged the agency in court. Earlier this month, the Federal Court determined the CFIA acted reasonably in its cull decision. The farm's owners filed an appeal this week. B.C. owners of ostriches condemned because of avian flu outbreak seek new legal challenge The CFIA said Friday that after the court made its ruling on May 13, farm owners and supporters have made an 'apparent attempt to prevent the CFIA from carrying out its operations at the infected premises.' It also says this has delayed a timely and appropriate response to the premises infected with the avian influenza, resulting in 'ongoing risks to animals and humans.' 'Given that the flock has had multiple laboratory-confirmed cases of H5N1 and the ongoing serious risks for animal and human health, and trade, the CFIA continues planning for humane depopulation with veterinary oversight at the infected premises,' it said. The agency also said Universal Ostrich Farm has not co-operated with requirements set out under the federal Health of Animals Act. It claims that it failed to report initial cases of illness and deaths to the CFIA and it did not adhere to quarantine orders. The farm was issued two notices of violations with a penalty totaling $20,000, the agency said. The farm has not yet responded to the CFIA's statement. On Thursday, Katie Pasitney, a spokesperson for the farm who is the daughter of an owner, told The Globe and Mail about 50 supporters have gathered at the site daily who are rallying to save the animals. A convoy of supporters plan to travel to the farm site this weekend, she added. Supporters who made visits to the farm this week include a 13-year-old teenager from Fraser Valley, B.C., and her parents. She was diagnosed with Canada's first domestically acquired case of avian flu in November, although it is still not known how she caught the virus. The teen was discharged from BC Children's Hospital in early January after fighting for her life. Her visit to the farm was the first time she made a public appearance since becoming ill.
Globe and Mail
30-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
B.C. owners of ostriches hope high-powered names and bird-flu survivor will save flock from cull
The owners of nearly 400 ostriches that are earmarked for death on a B.C. farm hope public appeals from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Oz and a 13-year-old Canadian survivor of bird flu will help to save their animals. The group of tall birds, including a particularly beloved one named Q-Tip after his fuzzy white head, live at the Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, a remote community in B.C. They have garnered international attention, including from Mr. Kennedy, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) plans to cull the animals to implement disease-control measures for avian influenza. Last December, an outbreak began killing 69 ostriches on the B.C. farm. In late January, the CFIA said the rest of the flock was to be 'depopulated.' The farm has been challenging the agency in court this spring. Earlier this month, the Federal Court determined the CFIA acted reasonably in its cull decision. The farm's owners filed an appeal this week. While the legal battle continues, about 50 supporters gather to the farm each day, said Katie Pasitney, who grew up with the animals as the daughter of one of the owners and sees them as family. Some birds, she said, have been around for decades: Q-Tip, for example, is in his 20s. B.C. owners of ostriches condemned because of avian flu outbreak seek new legal challenge Among the supporters who arrived earlier this week was a 13-year-old teenager from Fraser Valley, B.C., and her parents. She was diagnosed with Canada's first domestically acquired case of avian flu in November, although it is still not known how she caught the virus. She was discharged from BC Children's Hospital in early January after weeks spent fighting for her life in critical care. She made her first media appearance in video captured this week by reporters in B.C., where she was identified as Joselynn and issued an appeal to save the birds. 'Let them live; they don't deserve to die,' she whispered, her voice strained. Ms. Pasitney said the teenager is receiving blood tests to screen for antibodies. The same testing should be afforded to the ostriches who are in good health, she added. South of the border, Mr. Kennedy recently wrote a public letter to CFIA president Paul MacKinnon that said there would be 'significant value' in studying the immune response of the ostriches to avian flu. Dr. Oz, an American TV physician who now runs medicare in U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, offered to provide sanctuary to the birds at his Florida ranch. Dr. Oz offers to relocate B.C. ostriches facing cull The Trump administration has faced criticism for its response to the influenza. Drug maker Moderna announced Wednesday that the government cancelled a contract for the development of an avian flu vaccine for humans. In Canada, the CFIA has already killed more than 8.7 million birds in B.C. at hundreds of farms since April, 2022, because of avian flu. The measures, it says, are consistent with federal legislation and align with guidelines from the World Organisation for Animal Health. The CFIA won't specify when and how the ostriches will be killed. It said it may provide up to $3,000 to compensate for each culled bird. Universal Ostrich Farms has operated for more than three decades. The owners, Karen Espersen – Ms. Pasitney's mother – and Dave Bilinski, have raised hundreds of the birds. They are now concerned when the cull will begin. Ms. Pasitney felt hopeful when federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald told reporters on Wednesday the ostriches would 'not necessarily' be killed. Mr. MacDonald said he felt sorry for the farmers but cited an obligation to protect Canadian industries: 'We'll move forward on the best possible solution for everybody involved.'
