The Senate confirmed 53-45 celebrity television doctor Dr. Mehmet Oz on Thursday along the party line leading Medicare and Medicaid, which guarantees nearly half of all Americans.
The future of both programs is the subject of intense debate. Republicans are looking to significantly cut Medicaid, which provides healthcare to low-income Americans. The Trump administration and GOP lawmakers are proposing significant cuts in Medicaid spending to find savings to pay for President Trump's tax cut package.
Dr. Oz, 64, was a supporter of the voices of Medicare Advantage, a private insurance plan for older Americans, despite federal inquiries and concerns from lawmakers that insurers have overthrew the government by tens of millions of dollars a year, and was a private insurance plan for older Americans. He promoted it on his TV show and acted as a broker for one company selling plans.
At a confirmation hearing last month in the Senate Treasury Committee, he appears to acknowledge issues regarding Medicare's superiority, and tried to reassure the senator that there is a “new sheriff in town.”
Democrats on the committee burned him at length about Medicaid's potential sudden cuts. As a result, a considerable number of people may not be eligible for health insurance.
Recently, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversaw deep cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services early in the new Trump administration, including laying off another 10,000 takeovers, retirements and departures as well as around 10,000 employees.
The cuts also affect the agency of Dr. Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has a budget of around $1.5 trillion in annual spending. Still, Dr. Oz doesn't give any clues if there are any changes he planned.
Until recently the ability to secure enough votes to confirm Dr. Oz was in the air. Then, earlier this week, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said Dr. Oz decided to support his nomination because he didn't support transgender care for minors and told him he was “explicitly pro-life.” Mr. Holy had publicly said he withheld his support for Dr. Oz's previous position on these issues.
The senator largely avoided criticism of Dr. Oz's widespread, often vague financial ties with the corporations he oversees in his new position.
He and his wife are wealthy. His business and family ventures are valued in neighborhoods ranging from around $90 million to $335 million.
To avoid the conflict, he announced in February that he would sell his interest to more than 70 companies and investment funds.
Over the years he has made tens of millions of dollars, pitched dietary supplements and promoted health-related businesses on television shows.
The investments he said he was planning to sell included stakes in UnitedHealth Group, the huge conglomerate that is the country's largest provider of private Medicare plans. Inception Fertility Holdings is a private company that operates a chain of clinics. And Amazon now has a vast reach, including online pharmacies and sells countless medical devices and equipment.
Additionally, he has pledged to resign from various paid advisory jobs.
Still, his breadth of financial connections with countless health-related companies has encouraged lawmakers and ethics experts to express doubts about his ability to independence.
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