President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he will nominate Mehmet Oz, a former Pennsylvania Senate candidate and TV personality, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades,” Trump said in a statement, adding that Oz would work alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist whom Trump wants to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
In his own statement, Oz said that he was “honored” by Trump’s announcement. “I look forward to serving my country to Make America Healthy Again under the leadership of HHS Secretary @RobertKennedyJr,” he wrote on X.
Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, praised Trump for picking Kennedy in a post on Instagram last week, saying Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate, “will help our nation address the illness industrial complex that holds our health hostage.”
Like Kennedy, Oz has faced criticism over the years for promoting misleading and false claims about health and science.
In 2020, he came under scrutiny for promoting the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. In 2014, the British Medical Journal called his medical advice into question in a study that examined recommendations he made in 40 randomly selected episodes of his show in 2013. Researchers found case studies or other evidence that supported only 46% of 80 recommendations.
Amid criticism over some of his medical advice, Oz told NBC News in a 2015 interview that his show’s aim was “not to talk about medicine” while acknowledging that “there are segments that I made that I wish I could take back.”
Trump appeared on Oz’s television program, “The Dr. Oz Show,” during his 2016 presidential campaign to reveal the results of his physical examination.
Oz’s TV show aired from 2009 until 2022, when he made an unsuccessful bid for the Senate. He lost to John Fetterman, who flipped the seat for Democrats.
The government position Oz is seeking requires Senate confirmation.
Fetterman said he was open to Oz getting the CMS post.
“I’m not going to have a reflex to saying, ‘F that guy,’ because he ran against me for the Senate,” Fetterman told NBC News. “It’s about having a conversation and finding out.”
Other Democrats were more critical of Trump’s pick.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., blasted Oz, citing his endorsement of misleading scientific claims and staunch anti-abortion stances. She said he is not qualified to lead a “critical agency” like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“This is a pattern of Donald Trump pushing forward people he likes watching on TV for hugely consequential jobs in government, and it’s going to lead to more chaos and bad outcomes for regular people,” Murray said in a statement.
Some Senate Republicans were more welcoming.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., praised Oz, saying he was “glad” to hear of Trump’s plan to nominate him as 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 said in a post on X.
Cassidy is poised to be chair of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in January. The panel handles confirmation hearings for a nominees like CMS administrator.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is responsible for providing government-based health insurance to more than 160 million people through Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage to children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.
Oz, Trump said Tuesday, would “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.”
“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,” Trump added.
For the first time, the agency is negotiating drug prices on the costliest prescription drugs under Medicare.
The CMS announced the new prices of its first round of negotiations over 10 drugs, as mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act, in August. By February, the government is expected to announce the next 15 drugs up for negotiations. It is unclear what Trump’s position is on the ongoing negotiations, which are drug companies are contesting in court.
