President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz as the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, leading some to criticize how the former TV personality would lead one of the largest U.S. government agencies.
“I am very pleased to nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” announced Trump in a statement to Truth Social, a social media platform owned by the president-elect.
Trump, who has promised to slash federal government spending, assured in his statement that Oz would “cut waste and fraud” in what he states is the “Country’s most expensive Government Agency,” accounting for “a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”
The CMS is one of the most powerful and influential government agencies in the U.S., overseeing health insurance programs that cover over 160 million Americans, or nearly half of the U.S. population. The Center is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and works with state agencies to administer Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Health Insurance Marketplace. It also oversees administration for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), quality standards in long-term care facilities, like nursing homes, and HealthCare.gov. A 2024 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the centers accounted for nearly a quarter of all federal spending.
In his statement, Trump said Oz would “work closely” with Department of Health and Human Services-nominee Robert F. Kennedy to “take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.” As the HHS oversees the CMS, if confirmed by the Senate, Oz would report to Kennedy.
Oz, a board-certified heart surgeon and former talk show host for the “The Dr. Oz Show,” has no experience running a federal bureaucracy. He ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2022 in Pennsylvania, losing to Democrat Sen. John Fetterman. He first rose to prominence as a health expert for “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Like Kennedy, Oz has voiced skepticism over vaccines in the past. During the early days of the pandemic, he pushed antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as treatments for the coronavirus without scientific evidence or research to back his statements, leading to severe backlash. Emergency authorization for the medications were later revoked by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who said they were “unlikely to be effective” for COVID-19 patients.
It wasn’t the first time Oz was criticized for his statements. In 2014, he was reprimanded by senators during a congressional hearing for his promotion of weight-loss products in his show, and later in 2015, was accused of “manifesting an egregious lack of integrity” in his work by a group of 10 doctors at Columbia University who had disapproved of his faculty position at the Ivy League school.
Mixed reactions
Trump’s selection of Oz was met with mixed reactions from lawmakers. In a post on X, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) criticized the nominee, stating that Oz “has zero qualifications, pushes alarming pseudoscience, & holds extreme anti-abortion views.”
“CMS is a critical agency & we need serious leaders to protect Americans’ health care and bring down costs—not TV hosts whose main qualification is their loyalty to Trump,” Sen. Murray added.
New Jersey Representative Frank Pallone voiced similar sentiments, warning the impact of Trump’s recent nominations on Americans. “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,” Rep. Pallone said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this nomination further demonstrates that Trump is not concerned about Americans’ health care. By nominating both RFK, Jr. and Dr. Oz, Trump is doubling down on leaders that peddle in dangerous misinformation that endangers public health.”
Senator Bill Cassidy, who is also a physician, supported the nomination in a post on X, stating that the selection is a “great opportunity to help patients and implement conservative health reforms.” “It has been over a decade since a physician has been at the helm of CMS, and I look forward to discussing his priorities,” Sen. Cassidy stated.
Impact on Medicare and Medicaid
Oz has previously advocated for all Americans to have health insurance, mirroring ideals traditionally held by progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT). In an interview with The Seattle Times in 2009, Oz called on the federal government to provide healthcare coverage to Americans who otherwise could not afford it.
Similar to Trump, Oz has also voiced his support for Medicare Advantage in the past. Whereas original Medicare is a federal health insurance program, Medicare Advantage plans are privatized, with the federal government paying commercial insurers to offer coverage.
While Medicare Advantage offers lower monthly premiums than original Medicare, its small network of providers could limit options for doctors and hospitals, meaning patients are paying more in out-of-pocket services.
Oz has formerly suggested implementing a 20% payroll tax to fully privatize Medicare, a cost that he has deemed “affordable” for Americans. “We could fund this universal coverage entirely with full financial security by using an affordable 20 percent payroll tax, which is close to the amount most employers currently spend to buy insured care,” Oz wrote in a column for Forbes in 2020. “Half would be paid by employers, so individual Americans would pay no more than 10 percent of their income to pay for much better coverage than is currently available to most.”
Still, some question whether an additional tax hike would burden low- to middle-income Americans in an economy pressed by inflation. In a story for Newsweek, Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, questioned whether if confirmed, Oz would stray from his past proposed strategy.
“It will be interesting to see if given these complications in some of the United States’ biggest healthcare markets, Dr. Oz will change his original stance on Medicare Advantage being expanded or continue to push for more costs to be offloaded from the public to the private sector,” Beene said.
Oz hasn’t said anything about his goals for Medicaid, but if confirmed, his outline could be severely influenced by Trump’s recent promises to cut the program. On Monday, the Washington Post reported that Trump’s economic advisors are considering overhauling the program to extend the president-elect’s 2017 tax cuts once he returns to office in 2025. Such changes would include spending caps for the programs and tightening eligibility requirements.
Meanwhile, portions of Trump’s 2017 tax bill would add over $4 billion to national debt over the next decade.
SEE ALSO:
Trump Social Security Plan Would Hike Benefit Cuts, Speed Up Insolvency: CRFB Analysis
DOL Fiduciary Rule, ESG Considerations Likely DOA Under Second Trump Term
Second Trump Presidency: End of Tax on Social Security Benefits?
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with over six years of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. Amanda received her degree in journalism and government and politics at St. John’s University. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado with her partner. In her free time, Amanda enjoys running, cooking, and watching the latest drama show.
