Hearing Highlights: Conflicted Medicare Privatization Advocate Dr. Oz Doesn’t Disavow Trump-Republican Budget That Guts Health Care for Seniors, Most Vulnerable

WASHINGTON, DC – During today’s Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for President Trump’s nominee for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz only added fuel to the grave concerns over his prior advocacy of Project 2025-backed plans to privatize Medicare at the expense of seniors, his long record enriching himself through promotion of unproven medical treatments and pseudoscience, and his major potential financial conflicts of interest. When asked about the Trump-Congressional Republican budget plan that the nonpartisan CBO concluded would require deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid to pay for another wasteful tax giveaway to billionaires and corporations – threatening the health security of millions of seniors – Dr. Oz ducked the question and refused to state he opposes such cuts. 

“Dr. Oz’s career promoting dubious medical treatments and pseudoscience often for personal financial gain should immediately disqualify him from serving in any public health capacity, let alone in a top administration health post,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “As a self-interested advocate of privatizing Medicare at a higher cost and more denials of care for seniors, Dr. Oz is surely eager to enact the Trump-Republican budget plan to gut Medicare and Medicaid and jeopardize health coverage for millions of Americans – all to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires and price-gouging corporations. Dr. Oz’s nomination is part of President Trump’s grand plan to enrich his corporate donors and wealthy friends while the rest of us get higher costs, less coverage, and weakened protections – especially those with pre-existing conditions.” 

KEY QUESTIONS DR. OZ FAILED TO ANSWER DURING HIS NOMINATION HEARING: 

Financial Conflicts of Interest

•     Dr. Oz co-founded Sharecare, a digital health benefit company that, by 2022, that was providing services to at least 1.5 million Medicare Advantage enrollees. Oz profited millions off of Sharecare last year from a $518 million private equity deal, and has not promised to abstain from making decisions benefitting his former company and business associates. Additionally, Oz used his media platforms to advocate for “Medicare Advantage for All” while receiving revenue from a private health insurance agency that would profit from additional Medicare Advantage enrollees, a financial entanglement that raises questions about his incentives in office. How can Americans trust that the decisions Dr. Oz would make regarding Medicare Advantage would be in Americans’ best interests, rather than to help himself, his past business associates, and companies that have offered Oz lucrative sponsorships profit?

•     Dr. Oz was previously a significant stakeholder of health supplement retailer iHerb, whose products he extensively promoted online while holding a stake worth between $5-25 million. While Oz has promised to divest from iHerb, he has only vowed to abstain from actions directly affecting its business for one year, rather than the entire duration of his term. Given the extent of Oz’s involvement with iHerb and with future arrangements potentially at stake, if he is serious about maintaining an ethical and publicly legitimate tenure, why has he not promised to abstain from decisions affecting iHerb for the duration of his term at CMS?

History of Promoting Unproven Treatments

•     The British Medical Journal found that around half the recommendations Dr. Oz made to his viewers as a TV host were either unsupported or directly contradicted by scientific evidence. Oz also received a two-year conference and publication ban from the American Association of Thoracic Surgery for making unsubstantiated claims in a medical research article, promoted anti-malaria medication as a COVID-19 treatment, and appeared conspicuously silent when President Trump suggested that Americans inject disinfectants intravenously to treat themselves for COVID-19. As a high-ranking public official in charge of a medical agency, Dr. Oz’s words would carry even more weight with Americans than when he was a TV personality. And as head of CMS, how can the American people trust he would set the record straight if President Trump, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., or others in the administration share false information that puts Americans’ health at risk – or not share potentially dangerous misinformation himself? 

Lack of Public Health Administration Experience

•     Dr. Oz has never managed a large healthcare organization or government agency. In running his show, Oz may have managed a few dozen people at a time. By contrast, as head of CMS, Oz would be tasked with leading an agency with more than 6,700 federal employees and budget outlays exceeding $1.5 trillion, with tens of millions of Americans’ healthcare coverage on the line. How can Americans reasonably expect Oz to effectively manage one of the federal government’s largest and most complex agencies?

###