Sen. Elizabeth Warren and six other Democratic lawmakers are pressing for answers from Mehmet Oz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Their concerns have to do with his proposal to privatize Medicare and conflicts of interest if confirmed to lead the health organization overseeing the health care of more than 12 million Americans.
A letter, signed by Democrats and sent on Tuesday, highlights “stark concerns” about Oz’s financial ties of stocks of “at least $550,000 invested in UnitedHealth Group, the largest private insurer in Medicare Advantage.” This would mean “under Dr. Oz’s plan, UnitedHealth Group’s revenue from Medicare Advantage would roughly double to $274 billion annually.”
In addition to Warren, it was cosigned by Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Sen. Ben Cardin.
The Democratic lawmakers referred to a 2020 Forbes op-ed cowritten by Oz that called for switching Americans into the privatized Medicare Advantage, replacing the traditional Medicare program that insures elderly, low-income, and disabled Americans.
“Dr. Oz outlined his vision for the Medicare program, in which he advocated to eliminate Traditional Medicare and instead lean on private insurers that run Medicare Advantage, a private health care program that drastically overcharges for care.”
Oz, a celebrity doctor and TV host, was nominated by Trump on Nov. 19. He had previously been criticized for conflicts of interest when he pushed the debunked COVID-19 treatment hydroxychloroquine early on in the pandemic—a medication in which he owns stock.
Oz ran a failed Pennsylvania Senate campaign in 2022, during which more than 100 doctors slammed the Republican candidate for “lying to the American people about medicine.” He was also infamously mocked for not knowing his way around a local grocery store.
In 2014, British Medical Journal research found pseudoscience was being promoted on his talk show, “The Dr. Oz Show.” All the while, Oz was making steep profits from the “health” products, advertisements, and weight-loss supplements he promoted on the national show.
Oz fits in nicely with Trump’s crappy Cabinet cohort. Trump has a knack for nominating unqualified billionaires, D-list reality TV contestants, snake-oil quacks, and anti-science conmen set on making irresponsible health care decisions. However, Democrats look like they are at least putting up a fight by pointing out they don’t support this Cabinet of clowns. Their tactics, according to CNN, are a different approach from Trump’s first term.
“The mood is slightly different than the last time and there is a sense that if you are freaking out about everything, it becomes really hard for people to sort out what is worth worrying about,” Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii, told CNN.
Now, Democrats are looking to implement a deliberate and disciplined strategy in Trump’s second term: pointing out the places where they could work with a nominee when they see fit and forcing Republicans to defend Trump’s picks when a nominee faces ethics questions, has a history of controversial statements or doesn’t have what Democrats view as the necessary qualifications for the job.
Losing their majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely Democrats will be able to keep Oz away from the position. However, Democratic lawmakers have concluded they need more specific answers from Oz, requesting him to submit answers by Dec. 24 to a series of questions about his views on Medicare and U.S. health care and how he would run the department.
“Given your financial ties to private insurers, combined with your view that the traditional Medicare program is ‘highly dysfunctional’ and your advocacy for eliminating it entirely, it is not clear that you are qualified for this critical job,” lawmakers wrote.
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