Former heart surgeon and television host Dr. Mehmet Oz is set to face questions Friday from the Senate’s finance committee over his nomination to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Trump.
After Friday’s hearing, the GOP-led finance committee will schedule a vote on whether to send Oz’s nomination to the full Senate, where he is likely to be approved given the Republican majority. If confirmed, Oz would be the administrator charged with overseeing the nearly $1.5 trillion spent by the federal government on Medicare and Medicaid. The two health insurance programs for seniors and poor Americans make up more than a third of the budget.
Medicare covers around 65 million people, through programs run directly by the federal government or contracted out to private insurers. Medicaid supports around 85 million, through programs administered primarily by state governments overseen by CMS.
It will be up to Oz to finalize or abandon some major changes to Medicare and Medicaid sought by the Biden administration, like a pricey proposal in November to expand coverage to drugs used for weight loss like Wegovy and Ozempic.
Oz is also expected to face questions over the significant authority he would wield over private health insurance as CMS administrator.
On Monday, CMS proposed making several moves to reverse Biden administration expansions to the insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act, like shortening the open enrollment period and excluding DACA recipients from coverage. In 2022, Oz said that the law “caused havoc on our health care system” and that he “wouldn’t have voted for it.”
Oz will be the fourth of Trump’s health official picks to face questioning from senators. It comes a day after a hearing for Dr. David Weldon was abruptly canceled, after the White House withdrew his nomination to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A majority of senators on the Senate’s health committee advanced Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the president’s nominee to head the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Marty Makary, the pick to head the Food and Drug Administration, on Thursday.
Oz’s potential new supervisor, Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was narrowly confirmed by the Senate a month ago.
In social media posts last month, Oz has touted “great conversations” with key Republicans he would need to win over for his nomination.
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Republican chair of the Senate’s health committee, was among those to sit down with Oz last month. Cassidy is one of four medical doctors in the Senate.
“Great meeting with Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It will be great to have a doctor in charge,” Cassidy posted on Feb. 5.
The president’s pick to head CMS has earned criticism from some Senate Democrats, who have cited Oz’s past embrace of “alarming pseudoscience,” record of anti-abortion statements and worries over conflicts of interest.
Oz previously worked as a professor of cardiac surgery at Columbia University and host of “The Dr. Oz Show” until 2022, when he stopped taping new television episodes to run for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania.
He lost that Senate race to Democrat John Fetterman, in a narrow contest where abortion had ranked as a top issue for voters.
As part of an ethics agreement published last month, Oz said he will resign from positions at several companies, including the nutritional supplement company iHerb and the drugmaker Housey Pharma. He also pledged to divest from several healthcare companies, including insurance giant UnitedHealth Group.
After the Senate race, Oz had been advertised as iHerb’s global advisor. He continued to promote iHerb’s supplements on social media after his nomination.
He has also continued to republish past excerpts from his show in recent years after the Senate race, like a clip he shared on Sept. 4 from a sponsored interview about Medicare Advantage coverage. In 2020, Oz would later propose that Medicare Advantage should be expanded to all Americans.
In the clip, Oz said that enrollment in Medicare Advantage had grown 70% since he started his show. Just over half of seniors have opted for these plans, according to the latest federal data, instead of “original Medicare” coverage.
“I want to nudge you. I don’t want to shove you. But think about this, because a 70% increase since I started the show means a lot to me,” he said.
