Dr. Mehmet Oz was front and center Thursday as President Donald Trump unveiled a new deal with two pharmaceutical giants to expand coverage and reduce prices for their popular obesity treatments.
Oz, the director of Medicare and Medicaid Services, rushed over to provide aid to to a guest from drugmaker Eli Lilly who collapsed during the press conference. The White House later said the unnammed individual was “OK,” and the press conference resumed.
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Following the brief medical scare, Trump administrators continued touting the deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will make certain Medicare and Medicaid enrollees eligible for reduced-price obesity and diabetes drugs like Ozempic and Zepbound.
Oz initially stated that those agreements could help Americans lose a collective 125 million pounds by the 2026 midterms. He later adjusted that number – by a staggering amount.
“We thought it was 125 million pounds,” Oz said. “Mr. President, our estimate, based on the company numbers as well, is that Americans will lose 135 billion pounds by the midterms.”
The Census Bureau’s latest estimate placed the current U.S. population at 342 million. Going off that number, every American would need to lose about 394 pounds over the next year to hit Oz’s figure.
And if the the group was limited to the estimated 146.9 million people on Medicare and Medicaid, each individual would need to lose an average of 900 pounds.
The nationwide weight-loss goal Oz mentioned Thursday would be significantly more realistic if he intended to say 135 million, rather than billion. Americans on Medicare and Medicaid would only need to lose nine-tenths of a pound each for a collective loss of 135 million pounds.
“But I don’t measure it in pounds,” Oz said. “I measure it in saved lives. People can sleep again because they can breathe when they go to bed. Folks whose knees don’t hurt, people who don’t have heart attacks, renal failure, dementia. All the things we know are associated with obesity and much more.”
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