President-elect Donald Trump (R) has picked celeb doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz (L) to guide CMS. Right here they’re seen collectively throughout a rally on the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport November 5, 2022 in Latrobe, Pa., when Ozwas operating for Senate in that state.
Win McNamee/Getty Photographs
conceal caption
toggle caption
Win McNamee/Getty Photographs
President-elect Donald Trump nominated celeb doctor Mehmet Ozto go the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers.
Trump made the announcement Tuesday on Reality Social and in a press launch to reporters.
“Dr. Ozwill work carefully with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to tackle the sickness industrial advanced, and all of the horrible power illnesses left in its wake,” Trump mentioned within the announcement.
CMS is a part of the Division of Well being and Human Providers, the company that Kennedy will lead if his nomination is confirmed. CMS manages Medicare, Medicaid and the Inexpensive Care Act marketplaces for particular person insurance coverage, collectively representing well being protection for 155 million People.
Trump’s announcement notes that Ozgraduated from Harvard, and earned a joint MD and MBA from the College of Pennsylvania — and that he gained 9 Daytime Emmys for the Dr. OzShow.
Oz, 64, is a cardiothoracic surgeon who hosted a TV discuss present targeted on well being for a decade. He constructed his TV profession after being a frequent visitor on the Oprah Winfrey Present.
Ozfaced criticism for giving Kennedy and different vaccine denialists a platform in appearances on his present. Throughout the pandemic, Ozboosted the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 with out proof.
Ozran for Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania in 2022, and he vented his frustrations with the well being institution on the marketing campaign path. Trump endorsed him however Ozlost to Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat.
Throughout his Senate bid, he argued that the federal government had “patronized and misled” the general public in the course of the COVID pandemic. “COVID-19 turned an excuse for the federal government and elite thinkers who managed the technique of communication to droop debate,” he mentioned.
Ozhas promoted questionable well being recommendation to nationwide tv audiences. In 2014, he testified earlier than the Senate after being accused on false promoting for dietary supplements he promoted on his present. In 2015, ten medical doctors wrote a letter urging Columbia College’s medical college to fireplace him, arguing that a lot of the recommendation on his TV present has been discovered to be unsupported by scientific proof, and in some circumstances, contradicted by it.
Ozis a world adviser for iHerb, a web based complement retailer. And he usually recommends their merchandise on social media.
Lawrence Gostin, college director of the O’Neill Institute for Nationwide and International Well being Regulation at Georgetown College, wrote on X that Ozis “unfit” to run CMS. “He peddles conspiracy theories on vaccines & faux cures. He earnings from fringe medical concepts. By nominating RFK Jr & Mehmet Oz, Trump is giving his center finger to science,” wrote Gostin.
If he is confirmed by the Senate, Ozmight be overseeing an unlimited well being company that has about 6,500 staff and spends about $1.5 trillion a yr, greater than the Division of Protection.
Home consultant Frank Pallone, Jr., D-NJ, a rating member of the Home Power and Commerce Committee, which oversees CMS, launched a press release Tuesday criticizing the nomination of Oz. “The Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers is a workhorse company. It helps guarantee entry to well being take care of hundreds of thousands of People, together with our nation’s seniors, our youngsters, and the poorest People,” he mentioned. “Given the essential significance of this company, I’m alarmed that President-elect Trump has chosen a TV celeb with out the expertise or background to guide it.”
One other rating member of the committee, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, mentioned in a press release he seems to be ahead to studying extra about Ozs imaginative and prescient for CMS. “Far too usually, sufferers counting on federal authorities well being care applications are pressured to simply accept bureaucratic, one-size-fits-all protection. Dr. Ozhas been an advocate for offering customers with the data essential to make their very own well being care choices.”
Authorities watchdog Accountable.US raised alarms about Ozas properly, noting his help of Medicare Benefit plans, that are run by industrial insurers.
“Nominating an individual who has promoted unproven medical remedies for private acquire, opposed the Inexpensive Care Act, and helps the additional privatization of Medicare to supervise the well being take care of hundreds of thousands of individuals, together with seniors, could have devastating penalties,” mentioned Tony Carrk, govt director of Accountable.US in a press release.