Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s budget chief, and Peter Orszag, who held the role for a time under former President Barack Obama, sparred Thursday about the Republican healthcare bill, the Congressional Budget Office and how to get drug prices under control.
Mulvaney defended the House Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, called the American Health Care Act, saying it would allow states to choose how they want to craft healthcare plans.
House Republicans have been criticized for passing their bill without waiting for a score on uninsurance rates or cost from the Congressional Budget Office after changes were made to the original legislation.
Mulvaney brought the agency’s record into question, saying it wasn’t wise to think of CBO as a “perfect arbitrator” of all economic and healthcare issues. The agency misstated Obamacare’s impact, though its overall predictions about reducing the number of uninsured by roughly 20 million people was on target.
Orszag, who is now vice chairman of investment banking and managing director at Lazard, criticized the Republican plan.
“The American Health Care Act is half-baked,” he said. “We are talking about people’s lives here.”
He also defended the Congressional Budget Office.
“The CBO is not perfect, but it’s better than any alternative in terms of analyzing legislation,” he said.
Orszag and Mulvaney were speaking on a panel called, “What Happens Now? The Future of Healthcare Delivery,” at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., hosted by the Light Forum.
During the panel, they were also asked about spending on prescription drugs.
“It is a priority for the president,” Mulvaney said, adding that Trump was looking at possibilities through executive order. “The president keeps asking again and again what are we doing to fix this.”
Mulvaney called U.S. policies on drug pricing “the end result of the government intervention in the market over the last 60 years.”
He cited the example of EpiPen, saying it was less expensive in Europe, where people can buy the product from several manufacturers.
Orszag countered that European countries had governments that set drug prices.
“It’s the exact opposite of reality,” Orszag said of Mulvaney’s statement.
During the panel, Mark McClellan, who was on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers under former President George W. Bush as well as being the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he was concerned with Democrats’ strategy to block all Republican proposals on healthcare, rather than work together, as the changes would affect taxes and infrastructure.
“The caution I would offer is that the Democrats are in danger of winning the battle but losing the war, and of supporting the health and well-being of the voters they care most about,” he said.
