by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 2, 2026) — At approximately 1:15 p.m. EDT, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz opened the White House press briefing.
The Trump administration has been calling on administrators and cabinet members to deliver briefings since White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went on maternity leave last month.
The TrumpRX initiative, Oz said, has saved Americans approximately $500 million since its inception in February with its significantly lower prices than those paid over many years.
Weight-loss drugs, Oz announced, once prescribed by a physician, will be available for a $50 copay through the portal.
TrumpRX is not in the business of making money, Oz said.
One hundred sixty drugs have just been added to the program, he said.
As to the fraud, waste and abuse investigations his agency has announced in recent weeks, Oz said, “sophisticated work” by fraudsters is being flagged by the Department of Justice and its subsidiaries. “Organized crime” is believed to be responsible for some of the fraud, he said.
A “takedown” of two autism-service fraudsters occurred last week in Minnesota, he said, a consequence of which was to eliminate the defrauded program entirely. “We’ve been working with the state of Minnesota” to reduce fraud, he said, while stressing that his view is that Minnesota officials have not been entirely cooperative.
On May 27, the Department of Homeland Security wrote in a press release, in part:
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested two Minnesota residents on charges of health care fraud after stealing more than $21 million from American taxpayers.
On May 21, HSI St. Paul reported the arrest of Shamso Ahmed Hassan and Hanaan Mursal Yusuf on the charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, EIGHT counts of health care fraud, and TWO counts of money laundering.
“Almost half of all the hospices in California have been suspended,” Oz revealed is a result of investigations recently launched. Individuals running errands and assisting other family members are the “two most common” forms of employment in California and New York, he said.
After California was brought under scrutiny, Oz said, the same “hospice fraud” rose exponentially in Nevada.
“Durable medical equipment” has been particularly abused, he said, in the state of Florida.
He opened the briefing up to reporters’ questions, which encompassed a broad array of medical topics.
In response to one question, Oz said the Trump administration would like to see Congress “codify” the Most-Favored Nation status to which two drug companies agreed to offer to Americans, lowering prices substantially.
He said states cannot be “splintering off” to provide medical and dental benefits to illegal aliens in contravention of federal law.
Regarding the president’s health, Oz said, he has “an amazing amount of acuity” given his robust health as evidenced by lab results which are consistently well within desired ranges.
Two reporters asked Oz what he thinks about Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Bill Pulte’s qualifications to serve as acting director of national intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who will leave her post on June 30. Oz responded that he “does not know him socially” and trusts Trump’s judgment in his choice, announced earlier on Tuesday on Truth Social.
Another journalist suggested Pulte does not have the requisite experience to serve in the position.
As for the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), known colloquially as “Obamacare” and whose subsidies expired on December 31, the coverage often encompassed services customers “do not want.” There was also an “explosion” in the numbers of Americans registered for coverage, he said, suggesting there is much potential to save money.
“The expanded government help paying for insurance that made this coverage affordable was always temporary, an emergency measure enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic,” GovFacts reported on January 2. “These subsidies transformed the Affordable Care Act marketplace from a struggling experiment into something that worked for middle-income families. Enrollment more than doubled. Millions of people who had been priced out of health insurance suddenly had access to affordable coverage.”