Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2020-2024: on Health Care

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Un-American to end religious exemptions for vaccinations

Perry Johnson: Never again will we allow transition therapy for minors

Tim Walz: Shuttered businesses and schools during COVID-19 pandemic

Bipartisan cooperation became tougher during his second year as he used the governor's emergency power during the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter businesses and close schools. Republicans pushed back and forced out some agency heads. Republicans also remain critical of Walz over what they see as his slow response to sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Things got easier for Walz in his second term, after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen, a physician known nationally as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats gained control of both legislative chambers, clearing the way for a more liberal course in state government, aided by a huge budget surplus.

Tim Walz: 2020 COVID restrictions resulted in lower death rates

Republicans increasingly objected to and tried rolling back Walz's emergency powers, and protesters chafed at his stay-at-home orders. But Walz's approach--which combined near-constant public visibility with stubbornly defying political and business pressure to reopen before the vaccine rollout--ultimately paid off: by June 2021, Minnesota had a lower death rate from COVID than any surrounding state, at 136 deaths per 100,000. For Iowa and North Dakota, governed by Trump-emulating anti-restriction Republicans, that figure was 194 and 200, respectively.

Joe Biden: Negotiated Medicare prices for first 10 drugs

Congress for decades prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices, something that virtually all other countries do. It's a chief reason why drug prices are two to four times higher in the United States than in other wealthy countries. Medicare will pay less than half of the current list prices on nine of the first 10 drugs that were included in the program.

"For years, millions of Americans were forced to choose between paying for medications or putting food on the table, while Big Pharma blocked Medicare from being able to negotiate prices on behalf of seniors and people with disabilities," Biden said in a statement. "But we fought back--and won."

Kamala Harris: Take on Big Pharma to cap prescription drug costs

President Biden called on Congress to "give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500 drugs over the next decade." During her first campaign rally as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to "take on Big Pharma to cap prescription drug costs for all Americans."

Biden and Harris will hold a joint event in Maryland on Thursday touting the administration's efforts to lower costs for the American people. The Harris campaign said she will announce a policy proposal pertaining to prescription drug costs.

[For example] According to the Biden administration's negotiated price list, the 2023 list price for a 30-day supply of Januvia was $527. In 2026, Medicare will instead pay $113--or 79 percent less.

Kamala Harris: Cancel medical debt and cap drug costs

Ms Harris has also said that she would work with states to cancel medical debts. Again, her aim is laudable: it is scandalous that so many Americans are saddled with medical debt. Yet just cancelling debt would only reset the clock for them, with debts once again piling up whenever they need medical attention. "Why are health care costs so high in the first place? That's a legitimate question but it does not lend itself to quick fixes," says [a Columbia University analyst].

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Separate focus of NIH away from pharma industry

KENNEDY: No, I wouldn't dismantle them. I would change the focus and I would end the corruption. Right now, 75% of FDA's budget is coming from pharmaceutical companies. That is a perverse incentive.

Scientists and officials in NIH who work on drug development, who incubate drugs for the pharmaceutical company, get to collect lifetime royalties from those products. These are regulators. They're supposed to be looking for problems in those products. We have these agencies that have become sock puppets for the industries they're supposed to regulate. They're not really interested in public health.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Chronic disease affects 60% of Americans; was 6% under JFK

KENNEDY: This epidemic of chronic disease that is now disabled about 60% of our kids. And you know, when my uncle [John F. Kennedy] was President, only 6% of Americans had chronic disease. Today, over 60%. And, you know, it's hard to find a kid today that's not been damaged by it, and it's coming from our food supply, from pollution, toxics in our environment, and mainly from corruption in our government that allows that to happen.

Q: You've talked about or there's been discussion that if you were to join the Trump administration in some health related position, that you have real interest in dismantling things like the FDA, the CDC, NIH. You would like to see focus away from infectious diseases to what you're talking about more chronic diseases. Is it fair to say that you would try to dismantle some of those organizations?

KENNEDY: No, I wouldn't dismantle them. I would change the focus and I would end the corruption.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: End corrupt incentives on pharmaceuticals in NIH and FDA

A: I would change the focus and I would end the corruption. Right now, 75% of FDA's budget is coming from pharmaceutical companies. That is a perverse incentive. Officials in NIH who work on drug development, who incubate drugs for the pharmaceutical company, get to collect lifetime royalties from those products. These are regulators. They're supposed to be looking for problems in those products. We have these agencies that have become sock puppets for the industries they're supposed to regulate. They're not really interested in public health.

The most profitable thing today in America is a sick child. Everybody is making money. The hospitals, the pharmaceutical companies, even the insurance companies make money. And we need to end those perverse incentives. We need to get the corruption out of FDA, out of NIH, out of the CDC and make them function as they're supposed to function, which is to protect public health and particularly children's health.

Kamala Harris: Allow Medicare to cover the cost of home care for seniors