U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television host and prominent Turkish-American heart surgeon, to lead the agency overseeing health insurance programs for millions of older, low-income, and disabled Americans.
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing disease prevention, ensuring we achieve the best results in the world for every dollar spent on healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump announced in a statement on Tuesday. “He will also address waste and fraud within our nation’s most expensive government agency, which accounts for a third of our healthcare spending and a quarter of the entire national budget.”
Dr. Oz, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022, has been a vocal supporter of Trump. Recently, he endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation’s top health agency. “Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists, and @robertfkennedyjr can help as HHS secretary,” Oz wrote on Instagram last week, sharing a photo of himself with Kennedy.
If confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Oz will serve as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and report to Kennedy. CMS oversees programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which provide health insurance coverage to over half of the U.S. population.
Medicaid offers nearly-free healthcare to millions of low-income children and adults, while Medicare provides health insurance for older Americans and individuals with disabilities. The ACA, an Obama-era initiative, enables millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted insurance or employer-provided plans to purchase health insurance.
