RFK Jr. Claims He Can’t Hear as He Falls Aside in Senate Listening to

[ad_1] Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy couldn’t cough up solutions when pressed in regards to the Trump administration’s actions that may improve drug costs for seniors, leaving one senator baffled.

Whereas testifying earlier than the Senate Finance Committee Thursday, Kennedy was requested by Senator Catherine Cortez Masto about his assist of the carve-outs for high-cost most cancers medicine from Medicare price-reduction negotiations in Trump’s behemoth funds invoice.

“So my query to you, Mr. Secretary, is how do you justify claiming to tackle Large Pharma whereas supporting a invoice that shields medicine, like Keytruda and different most cancers medicine, from Medicare negotiation, costing seniors and taxpayers billions and risking the lives of most cancers sufferers who can't afford the required remedy?”

Kennedy replied that the deliberate price-reduction negotiations specified by the 2022 Inflation Discount Act had been “very well-intentioned, however they had been poorly structured,” and added that earlier negotiations had raised Medicare costs.

Cortez Masto interjected that Kennedy’s claims didn’t match the findings of the Congressional Funds Workplace. Trump and different Republicans have spent months attempting to discredit the CBO’s findings as they warn of the consequences of the president’s calamitous funds invoice . “The CBO doesn’t say that, it’s simply the alternative. So that you’re saying that the CBO and impartial businesses that validate the prices are mistaken?”

Kennedy claimed that the info was from the Facilities for Medicaid and Medicare Companies, or CMS.

The Nevada Democrat didn't relent, and when pressed on why these medicine had been exempted by Trump’s laws, Kennedy mentioned he was “undecided” of that provision.

“Your company is liable for that negotiation, and also you don’t learn about it?” Cortez Masto requested incredulously.

Cortez Masto tried to get particular, asking Kennedy if he knew how a lot folks enrolled in Medicare Half D and Half B had been anticipated to pay for prescription drug prices subsequent 12 months.

Every query elicited a protracted pause from Kennedy. He stammered solutions that included, “I believe that that's in debate proper now” and even, “I don’t know.”

Cortez Masto defined that costs had been anticipated to extend for Half D enrollees by $15, as much as $50 a month. Half B enrollees might count on worth will increase of 11.6 p.c, or $21.50 extra every month. Medicare premiums had been anticipated to have the most important single-year worth improve in many years as a result of the Trump administration had lower the federal subsidy that has been holding prices down, she mentioned.

Cortez Masto then tried to simplify her query even additional. “My query to you is, what are you doing to maintain prices down for seniors?” Cortez Masto pressed. Kennedy wilted.

“I imply, I’m already doing—I’m already holding prices down,” he mentioned.

“What are you doing to maintain prices down for seniors, realizing that these prices are going to be growing?” she requested once more.

Kennedy touted a Program Integrity Invoice, which CMS mentioned might decrease premiums by 5 p.c (the CBO contends it’s nearer to 0.6 p.c). “And does that influence seniors?” Cortez Masto pressed once more.

“Excuse me?” Kennedy mentioned.

“Does that influence seniors?” she mentioned.“Does that influence seniors? What you simply talked about, you’re reducing prices, does that influence seniors?

“Does it influence … ?” Kennedy mentioned, showing confused though he’d heard the identical query repeated a number of occasions. “I didn’t hear your query,” he pouted.

Whereas the senators’ microphones lower out at completely different moments throughout Kennedy’s listening to Thursday, that hadn’t been the case throughout Cortez Masto’s questioning. It appears clear that Kennedy heard—he simply didn’t have something sensible to say.