Trump names Dr. Mehmet Oz to head Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has picked Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a key federal agency that oversees health insurance coverage for more than 150 million Americans.

“I have known Dr. Oz for many years, and I am confident he will fight to ensure everyone in America receives the best possible Healthcare, so our Country can be Great and Healthy Again!” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday. “Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country.”

Trump, who is also seeking to slash spending in the federal government and has long had Medicaid in mind for reductions, also promised Oz would take a scalpel to the massive agency.

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget,” the president-elect said in his statement.

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality, ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2022 in Pennsylvania with Trump’s backing. He lost to Democratic now-Sen. John Fetterman.

In 2018, Trump appointed Oz to the Presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, reappointing him to the position in 2020.

Oz rose to fame as a frequent guest of Oprah Winfrey, eventually launching his own syndicated daytime TV talk show in 2009. Through “The Dr. Oz Show,” which won several daytime Emmy awards and reached millions of viewers, Oz became one of the most well-known doctors in the country.

His views on Covid-19, however, sparked controversy. Early on in the pandemic, for instance, Oz talked up the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a way to treat the coronavirus — despite the lack of firm scientific evidence that it was an effective treatment. Many of Oz’s perspectives were praised by Republicans at the time.

Oz’s selection continues Trump’s string of unconventional picks for key roles in his administration, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. If they are both confirmed, Kennedy would be Oz’s boss. For CMS administrator in his first term, Trump chose Seema Verma, who had a long history in health policy and consulting with a specialty in Medicaid.

Supported Obamacare in the past

Before he ran for Senate, Oz voiced support for Obamacare, CNN’s KFile reported in 2022, though his then-campaign spokesperson walked back those views, saying Oz would not have voted for the landmark health reform law.

Still, Oz’s earlier backing of the Affordable Care Act stands in sharp contrast with Trump’s view on the law, which he promised to repeal and replace in his first presidential campaign. Though Trump now says he would not try to get rid of Obamacare, he has repeatedly said he would replace it with a better plan – though the president-elect has not provided details on such a policy.

If confirmed, Oz would be responsible for overseeing the Affordable Care Act exchanges, which have enrolled more than 20 million people in 2024 – a record – between the federal and state-run marketplaces. In Trump’s first term, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pulled back on marketing and enrollment assistance, as well as shortened the sign-up period, leading to a decline in the number of people covered.

Oz would also have control over two major federal health programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which cover tens of millions of elderly Americans and low-income residents, respectively.

Oz has long voiced support for Medicare Advantage, a fast-growing program in which the federal government pays private insurers to provide coverage to senior citizens and disabled Americans. In his Senate campaign, he supported a health care plan called “Medicare Advantage Plus,” an expansion of the popular program.

The Biden administration has made several changes to the program in recent years to address criticism that insurers are overpaid. Insurers argue the payments are not enough to cover their medical costs, and some have curtailed the number of plans they offer in the program.

The CMS administrator is expected to play an important role in the second Trump administration since Republicans are expected to propose changes to Medicaid, which they have sought to shrink in the past. Plus, the White House and GOP lawmakers will have to decide what to do next year about the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025.

Oz has also held other views that are not in line with traditional Republican orthodoxy. As a physician, for example, he advocated that everyone in America have insurance – a view held by progressives, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has long pushed for “Medicare for All.” Oz has said that the government should provide health care coverage to Americans who cannot afford it. “It should be mandatory that everybody in America have health care coverage. If you can’t afford it, we have to give it to you,” Oz told The Seattle Times in 2009.

Oz, who is an advocate of alternative medicines and treatments, has been skewered by the medical community for years. In 2015, a group of physicians wrote Columbia University, saying they were “dismayed” Oz was a member of the school’s faculty. And in 2014, Oz was scolded by senators during a congressional hearing over his promotion of weight-loss products on his television show.

Mixed reaction

Reaction to Oz’s nomination fell largely along party lines.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor who is set to lead the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions next year, praised the nominee, noting that it has been more than a decade since a doctor led CMS.

“This is a great opportunity to help patients and implement conservative health reforms,” the Louisiana Republican posted on X.

But New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a Democrat and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the nomination shows that “Trump is not concerned about Americans’ health care.”

“Given the crucial importance of this agency, I am alarmed that President-elect Trump has chosen a TV celebrity without the experience or background to lead it,” he said in a statement. “By nominating both RFK, Jr. and Dr. Oz, Trump is doubling down on leaders that peddle in dangerous misinformation that endangers public health.”

Left-leaning advocates also voiced concerns about the agency’s direction with Oz as administrator.

“Dr. Oz’s past policy positions suggest he’d be strongly in favor of the Project 2025 plan to make Medicare Advantage — privatized Medicare — the default for all Medicare enrollees,” Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy at the Center for American Progress, said in a statement. “Such a policy would be a multi-billion-dollar giveaway to corporations that limits older Americans’ health care choices while putting Medicare’s future at risk. Medicare Advantage is in need of major reform, not unchecked expansion.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

Oliver Darcy contributed to this report.

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