President-elect Donald Trump (R) has picked superstar doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz (L) to steer CMS. Right here they’re seen collectively throughout a rally on the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport November 5, 2022 in Latrobe, Pa., when Ounceswas working for Senate in that state.
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Win McNamee/Getty Photos
President-elect Donald Trump nominated superstar doctor Mehmet Ouncesto move the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies.
Trump made the announcement Tuesday on Fact Social and in a press launch to reporters.
“Dr. Ounceswill work carefully with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to tackle the sickness industrial complicated, and all of the horrible power ailments left in its wake,” Trump stated within the announcement.
CMS is a part of the Division of Well being and Human Companies, 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 Individuals.
Trump’s announcement notes that Ouncesgraduated from Harvard, and earned a joint MD and MBA from the College of Pennsylvania — and that he gained 9 Daytime Emmys for the Dr. OuncesShow.
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.
Ouncesfaced criticism for giving Kennedy and different vaccine denialists a platform in appearances on his present. In the course of the pandemic, Ouncesboosted the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 with out proof.
Ouncesran 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 Ounceslost 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 stated.
Ounceshas promoted questionable well being recommendation to nationwide tv audiences. In 2014, he testified earlier than the Senate after being accused of false promoting for dietary supplements he promoted on his present. In 2015, ten medical doctors wrote a letter urging Columbia College’s medical faculty 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.
Ouncesis a world adviser for iHerb, an internet complement retailer. And he often recommends their merchandise on social media.
Lawrence Gostin, school director of the O’Neill Institute for Nationwide and World Well being Legislation at Georgetown College, wrote on X that Ouncesis “unfit” to run CMS. “He peddles conspiracy theories on vaccines & pretend 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, Ouncesmight 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 Companies is a workhorse company. It helps guarantee entry to well being take care of thousands and thousands of Individuals, together with our nation’s seniors, our youngsters, and the poorest Individuals,” he stated. “Given the essential significance of this company, I’m alarmed that President-elect Trump has chosen a TV superstar with out the expertise or background to steer it.”
One other rating member of the committee, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, stated in a press release he seems to be ahead to studying extra about Ouncess imaginative and prescient for CMS. “Far too usually, sufferers counting on federal authorities well being care packages are pressured to simply accept bureaucratic, one-size-fits-all protection. Dr. Ounceshas been an advocate for offering shoppers with the data essential to make their very own well being care selections.”
Authorities watchdog Accountable.US raised alarms about Ouncesas effectively, noting his help of Medicare Benefit plans, that are run by industrial insurers.
“Nominating an individual who has promoted unproven medical therapies for private achieve, opposed the Inexpensive Care Act, and helps the additional privatization of Medicare to supervise the well being take care of thousands and thousands of individuals, together with seniors, can have devastating penalties,” stated Tony Carrk, government director of Accountable.US in a press release.