April 3 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate confirmed television star Dr. Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Thursday.
Casting ballots along party lines, senators in the narrow Republican-majority Senate voted 53-45 in favor of Oz to lead the federal agency that provides healthcare to more than 160 million Americans through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Health Insurance Marketplace.
Not a single Democrat supported Oz for the position. Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Patty Murray of Washington both abstained from the vote.
“All great societies protect their most vulnerable, and I would argue we are a great people. With that in mind I commit to doing whatever I can, working tirelessly to ensure that CMS provides Americans with access to superb care, especially Americans who are most vulnerable — our young, our disabled and our elderly,” Oz said Thursday during the Senate hearing.
“For me, this commitment has been a lifelong passion.”
Oz was confirmed to lead the federal agency as the Department of Government Efficiency, a temporary organization unofficially overseen by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, has been making mass employee cuts at federal health departments.
Thousands of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services were terminated on Tuesday, impacting several health agencies, though CMS was expected to survive the worst of the cuts, with only 300 staff anticipated to be let go.
The HHS plans to shrink its workforce from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000.
The cuts, part of DOGE’s mandate to reduce wasteful spending and other actions of the administration of President Donald Trump have raised fears that Medicare and Medicaid funding might next be on the chopping block.
Oz, who previously made comments about privatizing Medicare, failed to assuage those worries during a confirmation hearing last month when he dodged stating he wouldn’t make cuts to either Medicare or Medicaid coverage.
“I cherish Medicaid,” he said.
“That’s not the question, doctor. The question is, will you oppose cuts to this program you say you cherish?” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked.
Oz declined to answer, stating he wants to “make sure that patients today and in the future have resources to protect them if they get ill.”
Oz, an acclaimed surgeon, became a household name in the 2000s through his appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which led to him gaining his own program, The Dr. Oz Show, which ran from 2009 to 2022.
He has attracted criticism, however, for using his program to peddle unfounded health claims and products, with the Protect Our Care healthcare advocacy organization calling him a “grifter.”
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees called Oz a “snake oil salesman” on Thursday as it criticized his confirmation to lead CMS.
“Dr. Mehmet Oz has been shilling pseudoscience to line his pockets,” the union with more than 1.4 million members said in a statement emailed to UPI. “He can’t be trusted to defend Medicare and Medicaid from billionaires who want to dismantle and privatize the foundation of affordable healthcare in this country.”
Democrats bashed Oz’s confirmation online while expressing worries that the federal medical programs would be the next targets of the Trump administration.
“It’s abundantly clear this administration wants to gut the essential services that Medicare and Medicaid provide to millions of Americans,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said on X.
“Republicans are both trying to gut essential Medicare and Medicaid benefits, AND trying to confirm a celebrity doctor who touted quack cures to COVID and is more interest in making a buck than dispensing sound medical advice? It’s a clown show,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said.
Oz entered politics in 2022 when he campaigned for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Despite having Trump’s endorsement, he lost to Sen. John Fetterman.
Trump endorsed Oz to lead the CMS shortly after winning the presidential election in November, tasking him to work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic who is the HHS director, “to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”
Oz is also one of many people in Trump’s government who have been noted television personalities, the president included. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were all Fox News contributors, along with several others.
