Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Explains How He'll Attempt To Tackle Healthcare Inflation As Head Of NIH

13 hours ago

At his confirmation hearing last week, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was asked about healthcare inflation by Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH).

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00:00minorities or not. Thank you so much. I yield. Thank you, Dr. Elsenbrooks. Very good

00:04sneaking that last comment in, you know I'm saying, after the buzzer. Senator

00:08Husted. Thank you Chairman Cassidy, Dr. Bhattacharya, thank you for being here. Although as someone who

00:15grew up watching professional basketball in the 70s and 80s, calling you Dr. J is

00:19a fun thing. That's a real thrill for me whenever I hear that.

00:25Thanks for this, your nomination frankly at this time in America is a victory for

00:32the scientific method. I know that you have been courageous in offering

00:39divergent views and backing them up and encouraging people to think differently

00:44about how we solve complex problems. That's what science is supposed to be

00:49about, so thank you for being a champion of that during difficult circumstances. I

00:54want to just talk briefly about something we talked about is that in, we

01:03heard a lot of talk about inflation in America, but in this century the number

01:08one inflationary cost that affects Americans, American business, quality of

01:13life, has been health care inflation. And the idea that we can think differently

01:21about how we address healthy living, our diets, how we improve the quality of life,

01:29drive down costs and improve outcomes, is something I think is sorely missing

01:35today in the conversation about health care and thinking differently about it

01:40is critical to doing that. So just give some thoughts about how you think your

01:45role as director could help advance that conversation. Senator, I really enjoyed our

01:51conversation that we had in your office about exactly this. The chronic disease

01:57problem, let's just take obesity, it seems almost intractable. For

02:02decades we've had body weight go up, diabetes rates, chronic disease, and in a

02:08way that's an indictment on how the NIH has functioned. The goal of the NIH is to

02:13make Americans healthy. It's to have the research that makes Americans

02:16healthy. I think I want to make sure that we allow a broadest set of ideas as

02:21possible to address this problem, because the set of ideas we've had so

02:25far have not actually addressed the problem. It's continued to get worse.

02:28Fundamentally to me, and this is an element of faith, I guess, I believe

02:33that if we allow science to have lots and lots of different ideas, that we

02:39will be able to meet the health needs of the American people. But if we say, okay,

02:42only a few scientists with their ideas are allowed to have support, with

02:46the narrowest, like, one school of thought, we're not going to make any progress. I

02:49don't have the answer to how to solve the obesity crisis. If I did, I would

02:54have already published it. But I want to make sure that the

02:58scientists that that does, that's out there, has support from the NIH, even if

03:02their ideas can contradict what the top scientists the NIH currently think.

03:06Well, I spoke with this with Secretary Kennedy, and I know that this goes

03:11across agencies from the Department of Agriculture to Health, Human Services,

03:17but it is a tremendous cost to the American taxpayer, to the quality of life,

03:23to American competitiveness, all of those issues, sustainability of our federal

03:28budget. So I just encourage creative thinking and collaboration on that issue.

03:32I want to mention lots of conversation these days on NIH grants and talking

03:39containing costs of how we do scientific research, but make sure we're

03:44putting more lead on the target of that research rather than administrative

03:47costs. I know that in Ohio we have a number of entities, our universities,

03:53Cleveland Clinic, our hospitals, so forth, that are involved in this. I really

03:58believe that there are many institutions who are willing to work with you in

04:04sharpening their pencils, getting better, forcing change in how these

04:12grants are used, distributed, and focused on real, the research that needs to be

04:18done, and just give some thoughts, if you would, about how, you know, how we can

04:24advance those conversations on this topic. Well, Senator, I think the

04:28universities that are partners of the NIH, not opponents. I do think that

04:33there's a lot of distrust now, coming out of the pandemic, of the scientific

04:38enterprise and of universities also. The way to address the distrust is

04:43transparency, and I'm absolutely committed to working with you and with

04:46others to make sure that that we can restore that trust by

04:51establishing transparency. Where did the administrative costs go? That's something,

04:55that's a question that could be answered with audits, for instance, and

04:59establishing the right rates. That's going to, if I'm confirmed, that's

05:02something I'll look very carefully into. I think, I want to make sure that every

05:06single dollar the American taxpayer entrusts the NIH to goes to addressing

05:10the needs, the research that will address the health needs of the

05:14American people. Great, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator Usted.

05:18Now, Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Doctor, I've been hearing from researchers

05:24in Massachusetts.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Explains How He'll Attempt To Tackle Healthcare Inflation As Head Of NIH

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