Trump picks Dr. Oz to lead Medicare and Medicaid

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President-elect Donald Trump (R) has picked celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz (L) to lead CMS. Here they're seen together during a rally at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport November 5, 2022 in Latrobe, Pa., when Oz was running for Senate in that state. / Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump nominated celebrity physician Mehmet Oz to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Trump made the announcement Tuesday on Truth Social and in a press release to reporters.

"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 in the announcement.

CMS is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that Kennedy will lead if his nomination is confirmed. CMS manages Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for individual insurance, together representing health coverage for 155 million Americans.

Trump's announcement notes that Oz graduated from Harvard, and earned a joint MD and MBA from the University of Pennsylvania — and that he won nine Daytime Emmys for the Dr. Oz Show.

Oz, 64, is a cardiothoracic surgeon who hosted a TV talk show focused on health for a decade. He built his TV career after being a frequent guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Oz faced criticism for giving Kennedy and other vaccine denialists a platform in appearances on his show. During the pandemic, Oz boosted the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 without evidence.

Oz ran for Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania in 2022, and he vented his frustrations with the health establishment on the campaign trail. Trump endorsed him but Oz lost to Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat.

During his Senate bid, he argued that the government had "patronized and misled" the public during the COVID pandemic. "COVID-19 became an excuse for the government and elite thinkers who controlled the means of communication to suspend debate," he said.

Oz has promoted questionable health advice to national television audiences. In 2014, he testified before the Senate after being accused of false advertising for supplements he promoted on his show. In 2015, ten doctors wrote a letter urging Columbia University's medical school to fire him, arguing that much of the advice on his TV show has been found to be unsupported by scientific evidence, and in some cases, contradicted by it.

Oz is a global adviser for iHerb, an online supplement retailer. And he regularly recommends their products on social media.

Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, wrote on X that Oz is "unfit" to run CMS. "He peddles conspiracy theories on vaccines & fake cures. He profits from fringe medical ideas. By nominating RFK Jr & Mehmet Oz, Trump is giving his middle finger to science," wrote Gostin.

If he's confirmed by the Senate, Oz will be overseeing an enormous health agency that has about 6,500 employees and spends about $1.5 trillion a year, more than the Department of Defense.

House representative Frank Pallone, Jr., D-NJ, a ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees CMS, released a statement Tuesday criticizing the nomination of Oz.

"The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is a workhorse agency. It helps ensure access to health care for millions of Americans, including our nation's seniors, our children, and the poorest Americans," he said. "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."

Another ranking member of the committee, U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said in a statement he looks forward to learning more about Oz's vision for CMS. "Far too often, patients relying on federal government health care programs are forced to accept bureaucratic, one-size-fits-all coverage. Dr. Oz has been an advocate for providing consumers with the information necessary to make their own health care decisions."

Government watchdog Accountable.US raised alarms about Oz as well, noting his support of Medicare Advantage plans, which are run by commercial insurers.

"Nominating a person who has promoted unproven medical treatments for personal gain, opposed the Affordable Care Act, and supports the further privatization of Medicare to oversee the health care for millions of people, including seniors, will have devastating consequences," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US in a statement.