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Dr. Mehmet Oz has been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
A crucial government organization that manages health insurance coverage for over 150 million Americans.
“I have known Dr. Oz for a long time, and I have no doubt that he will fight to make sure that everyone in America has access to the best healthcare available so that our nation can once again be great and healthy!”
Trump stated Tuesday in a statement. “Dr. Oz will lead the way in providing incentives for disease prevention, ensuring that every dollar spent on healthcare in our wonderful nation yields the best results in the world.”
Oz also pledged that Trump, who is also looking to cut federal spending and has long had Medicaid in mind for cuts, will take a knife to the enormous bureaucracy.
In his statement, the president-elect said, “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency.
Which accounts for a quarter of our entire National Budget and a third of our Nation’s Healthcare Spending.”
With Trump’s support, Oz, a television celebrity and cardiothoracic surgeon, made a failed 2022 Senate run in Pennsylvania.
John Fetterman, a Democrat and current senator, defeated him. Oz was reappointed to the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition in 2020 after Trump had appointed him to the council in 2018.
Oz became well-known as an Oprah Winfrey guest, and in 2009 he started his own syndicated daytime TV talk program.
Oz rose to prominence as one of the nation’s most well-known physicians thanks to “The Dr. Oz Show,” which attracted millions of viewers and won many daytime Emmy awards.
However, his opinions on COVID-19 caused controversy. For example, Oz promoted the antimalarial medication hydroxychloroquine.
As a therapy for the coronavirus early in the pandemic, even though there was little scientific proof to support its efficacy. Republicans at the time applauded many of Oz’s viewpoints.
With Oz’s appointment, Trump has continued to choose unorthodox candidates to important positions in his cabinet, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy would oversee Oz if both are verified. Trump selected Seema Verma, a Medicaid specialist with extensive experience in health policy consulting, to be CMS administrator during his first term.
Previously supported Obamacare: According to CNN’s KFile in 2022, Oz expressed support for Obamacare prior to his Senate candidacy.
However, his then-campaign spokeswoman later retracted those remarks, stating that Oz would not have voted in favor of the historic health reform bill.
However, Trump’s stance on the Affordable Care Act, which he pledged to repeal and replace during his first presidential campaign, contrasts sharply with Oz’s prior support for the legislation.
Trump has consistently stated that he will replace Obamacare with a better plan, but the president-elect has not offered specifics on what that plan would entail.
Despite this, Trump now claims he would not attempt to repeal Obamacare. Should Oz be confirmed, he would be in charge of managing the federal and state-run Affordable Care Act exchanges, which in 2024 registered a record 20 million people.
The number of individuals insured decreased under Trump’s first term as a result of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cutting back on marketing and enrollment support and shortening the sign-up period.
Additionally, Oz would be in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, two significant government health programs that serve tens of millions of low-income citizens and elderly Americans, respectively.
Oz has long advocated for Medicare Advantage, a rapidly expanding program that allows the federal government to pay private insurers to cover Americans with disabilities and the elderly.
During his Senate race, he backed “Medicare Advantage Plus,” an extension of the well-liked program.
In response to complaints that insurers are being compensated, the Biden administration has modified the program in a number of ways in recent years.
Some insurers have reduced the number of policies they provide in the program, claiming the payments are insufficient to cover their medical expenses.
Given that Republicans have previously aimed to reduce Medicaid, it is anticipated that the CMS administrator will have a significant role in the second Trump administration.
Additionally, the increased Obamacare premium subsidies are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, and the White House and Republican lawmakers will need to determine what to do about them next year.
Other opinions that deviate from conventional Republican doctrine have also been espoused by Oz. For instance, as a doctor.
He supported universal health insurance, a position shared by progressives such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has long supported “Medicare for All.”
According to Oz, Americans who cannot afford health insurance should be covered by the government.
Everyone in America should be required to obtain health insurance. In 2009, Oz told The Seattle Times, “We have to give it to you if you can’t afford it.”
For years, the medical profession has mocked Oz for supporting alternative therapies and medications.
In a letter to Columbia University in 2015, a number of doctors expressed their “dismay” that Oz was a faculty member.
During a congressional hearing in 2014, Oz received a reprimand from senators for promoting weight-loss goods on his show.
A mixed response: Party lines dominated the response to Oz’s nomination. More than ten years have passed since a physician led CMS, according to Sen.
Bill Cassidy, a physician who will chair the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions next year. Cassidy commended the candidate.
The Louisiana Republican wrote on X, “This is a great opportunity to help patients and implement conservative health reforms.”
However, the selection demonstrates that “Trump is not concerned about Americans’ health care,” according to New Jersey Representative Frank Pallone Jr.
A Democrat and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I am concerned that President-elect Trump has selected a television personality who lacks the necessary skills and experience to lead this agency, considering its vital role,” he said in a statement.
“Trump is doubling down on leaders who spread harmful misinformation that jeopardizes public health by nominating both Dr. Oz and RFK, Jr.”
Concerns over the agency’s orientation under Oz’s administration were also raised by left-leaning groups.
According to Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy at the Center for American Progress, “Dr. Oz’s prior policy stances indicate he would be strongly in favor of the Project 2025 plan to make Medicare Advantage — privatized Medicare — the default for all Medicare enrollees.”
“Such a policy would limit older Americans’ options for health care and jeopardize the future of Medicare, amounting to a multibillion-dollar giveaway to corporations.”
Medicare Advantage needs significant change, not unrestrained growth.