Trump taps Dr. Oz to serve as Medicare, Medicaid administrator

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his intent to nominate Mehmet Oz — better known by his television moniker “Dr. Oz” — to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

If confirmed, Oz would oversee a sprawling federal agency that manages health care coverage for nearly half of Americans through Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and other programs.

Oz is a heart surgeon who found commercial success through “The Dr. Oz Show,” a daytime talk show that focused on health and wellness. The show ended in 2022 when he decided to run as a Republican for Senate in Pennsylvania — a race he lost to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.

“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement. “Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”

Trump said Oz will incentivize disease prevention and “cut waste and fraud” within CMS.

Early Republican reaction was supportive.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., tweeted Tuesday that he was “Glad to hear @DrOz has been nominated for CMS administrator. It has been over a decade since a physician has been at the helm of CMS, and I look forward to discussing his priorities. This is a great opportunity to help patients and implement conservative health reforms.”

Cassidy, currently the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will be chairman of that committee during the next Congress.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., called Oz a “nice guy” that “seemed very intelligent.”

Trump, he said, “added another all-star to his list.”

Democrats, however, were far less enthusiastic. House Energy and Commerce ranking Democrat Frank Pallone Jr., of New Jersey, said he was “alarmed that President-elect Trump has chosen a TV celebrity without the experience or background to lead it.”

“Unfortunately, this nomination further demonstrates that Trump is not concerned about Americans’ health care,” he said.

Trump has long been a fan of Oz, having appeared on his show in 2016. In his statement announcing the pick, he highlighted Oz’s nine daytime Emmy Awards.

Oz served on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition during the Trump administration. But President Joe Biden removed him from the commission when Oz began his Senate run, declaring it a violation of federal law.

He founded the nonprofit HealthCorps with his wife, Lisa, to provide health education to school children.

Oz worked as a cardiac surgeon from 1986 onward. But has spent most of his career in media, publishing New York Times bestselling books and hosting his television show.

Critics have targeted some of his controversial views as not backed up by science, even before his entry into politics.

In 2015, a group of doctors tried to get Oz removed from his position as the vice chairman of the surgery department at Columbia University medical school, in part because of medical claims he’d made on his show and his push for controversial weight loss medications.

In 2014, then-Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., castigated him during a Senate hearing for pushing fraudulent weight loss products.

In 2018, he reached a $5.25 million settlement deal in a false advertising class action lawsuit accusing him of overstating the benefits of dietary supplements, though he did not admit liability.

Oz served as an informal advisor to the first Trump administration, espousing some of Trump’s more controversial views. He also promoted use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, to treat COVID-19.

In April of 2020, Oz said on Fox News that reopening schools would be worth it, even if it led to increased deaths. He later retracted the statement.

On the Senate campaign trail, Oz said he supported the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, even though he had previously expressed support for abortion access. Oz has also expressed support for medical marijuana, but has cautioned against broader cannabis use for recreational purposes.