At Friday's hearing, the senator pushed TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, who was appointed to a Medicare and Medicaid lead-in proposal for a Republican-led proposal that would have a major impact on the healthcare scope of nearly half of all Americans.
During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Dr. Oz joking with the Senator in a friendly atmosphere, joking about basketball and loyalty to the college team. He showed the appeal of his on-air as he escaped tough questions from both sides of the aisle and eliminated Democrats' most pointed concerns about potentially radical changes in health insurance for children over 65, as well as poor.
Many senators appeared to be distracted by the heated debate over Republican budget deals to avoid government shutdowns, and they went in and out of Dr. Oz's hearing. However, he is poised to sail the Senate for confirmation as the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has a $1.5 trillion expenditure.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat of Massachusetts, had a great deal of his financial dispute before the hearing. However, in the session, she didn't push him about those issues. Instead, she focused on his views on whether private Medicare plans are overcharging governments. She and Dr. Oz seem to agree with the potential fraud and the need to tackle it in vain.
Throughout the hearing, he presented brief knowledge of various related institutional issues, but he repeatedly replied with the response that he needed to study the topic at hand more.
Several lawmakers, primarily Democrats, tried to force Dr. Oz to express their views on the Trump administration's goal of cutting healthcare costs and agency budgets, but he repeatedly avoided those minefields.
“It is our patriotic duty to be healthy,” he told the senators. “It costs a lot of money to care for a sick person for lifestyle choices.”
The refrain is in line with the Make America Health and Human Services new secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Oz's upcoming boss defended by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The advantage and privatization of Medicare
An introduction from Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, offered the first promise of some challenging questions. He accused Democrats of avoiding the Social Security and Medicare tax in recent years of avoiding the Social Security and Medicare taxes, following the conclusion that Democrats had concluded. However, there were no follow-up questions about it.
Wyden also raised the specter that he intends to grill Dr. Oz about his connection with TZ Insurance Solutions, a for-profit company that sells Medicare Advantage plans to older Americans. Dr. Oz is the relentless promoter of these private plans and has been criticized by lawmakers and regulators for systematically overcharging and denying patient care on his shows and YouTube channels.
According to a recent survey of his finances by the New York Times, Dr. Oz, 64, is also a registered broker for TZ insurance in states around the country. Again, Wyden flagged the issue and did not follow up.
Despite concerns by Democrats, Dr. Oz was likely to roll back some rules intended to curb the plan, and instead promised strong surveillance. He acknowledged that some of the brokers selling these plans were “policy cuts” and switching people from one plan to another, whether the coverage changes benefited them or not.
“Part of that just recognizes that there is a new sheriff in town,” Dr. Oz said. “We actually have to chase places and areas where we don't manage American money well.”
Several times during the hearing, Dr. Oz addressed bipartisan concerns about whether the Medicare Advantage plan was overpaid. In response to questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican of Louisiana, Dr. Oz mentioned research suggesting that the federal government spends more on private Medicare alternatives than government-run programs. “Right upside down,” he said.
“We should look into whether we should refund some of the money to the American people,” Dr. Oz said.
He also expressed interest in addressing some of the bipartisan concerns over the use of previous permits by insurers to approve medical procedures by reducing the number of services eligible for review.
Republicans plan to cut Medicaid
Democrats seemed most frustrated by Dr. Oz's attitude towards Medicaid, a state and federal program aimed at 72 million low-income Americans. “All my colleagues would like to know, are you planning on cutting Medicaid?” asked Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat.
However, Dr. Oz, who hasn't spoken much about the program he oversees as head of the agency, did not respond directly. He said he didn't know the details of the Republican budget debate. Lawmakers are seeing hundreds of billions of dollars cuts that could result in losses in people's coverage as registration became more difficult and the nation had to burden them with more burdens.
When Sen. Rafael Warnock, a Democrat of Georgia, was questioned, he said he supported the job requirement for Republicans to limit eligibility in his efforts to add monthly paperwork that is burdensome to some people to show that Republicans should benefit. However, he agreed to the senators to ensure that those who should be eligible for Medicaid are not cut off.
Dr. Oz and his supplement business
There were other subjects who seemed to be moving away from the senator. Dr. Oz, for example, has earned tens of millions of dollars over the years, has promoted dietary supplements in many cases without mentioning his financial benefits. He is paid by numerous medical and health companies to showcase his products. Many of these companies will be affected by the decisions he makes as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and many have already benefited from agency funding.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat, asked him to show exactly what he did by promoting supplements on daytime television shows. He said nothing was paid. He began to explain that Sony Pictures distributed the show and was an entity paid by these companies (which paid him), but he was cut off. In the end, Hassan couldn't extract anything meaningful from him and proceeded.
Patient privacy and Doge invasion
During the hearing, Wyden forced Dr. Oz to the so-called government efficiency of Elon Musk on the access given to American private health information. Wyden expressed concern about the need to protect people's privacy given the potential of individual health and the ability to view medical data. Despite his repeated questions, the Trump administration has not addressed these concerns so far, he said. To his surprise, Dr. Oz has not discussed with the administration what Musk's team was doing when inspecting agency information, but has promised “what's going on.”
measles
The outbreak of measles in Texas and New Mexico raised concerns over the response by Kennedy and the Trump administration, leveling out serious criticism. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, asked Dr. Oz if he believes the measles vaccine is safe. Dr. Oz did that, but after the senator asked if it was effective, he retreated and said that individual vaccines and use recommendations were under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not within his scope.
“My job is to ensure that if it's confirmed, they'll pay for those vaccines,” he said.
