Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he will appoint Mehmet Oz, a TV physician and former Pennsylvania Senate candidate, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Trump stated in a statement that Oz would collaborate with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist whom Trump wants to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, to “take on the illness industrial complex.” “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 2020, Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, came under fire for advocating the use of the antimalarial medication hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
Before his unsuccessful Senate run in 2022, Oz’s TV show ran from 2009. John Fetterman defeated Oz, flipping the seat in favor of Democrats.
The Senate must confirm Oz’s request for a government position.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump appeared on Oz’s television show, The Dr. Oz Show, to discuss the findings of his physical.
Through Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers children whose families make too much money for Medicaid, CMS is in charge of offering government-based health insurance to over 160 million individuals.
Trump’s declaration coincides with the agency’s first-ever drug price negotiations for the most expensive prescription medications covered by Medicare.
As required by the Inflation Reduction Act, the CMS released the updated costs of its initial round of talks on ten medications in August. The next 15 medications up for discussion are anticipated to be announced by the government by February. Trump’s stance on the ongoing negotiations, which are being challenged in court by pharmaceutical corporations, is unknown.
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