from win President-elect Donald Trump has made headlines with a series of surprising appointments to his incoming administration. Many people lack the basic qualifications for their respective positions. Almost anyone could be characterized as a MAGA loyalist.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former TV personality and failed Republican Senate candidate, is one of the more closely scrutinized candidates. There is a reason for this. Oz is a high-profile physician with no experience running a large federal bureaucracy and has now been appointed to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the massive agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Oz also boasts a long history of peddling dubious scientific theories and treatments.
But Oz’s conspicuous lack of qualifications does not appear to have dimmed Republican expectations. In fact, they seem very happy. Senator Lindsey Graham said he was “very excited” about the nomination. Senator Tommy Tuberville went so far as to call Oz an “All-Star” candidate. Here’s what you need to know about Oz and why he could be the perfect vessel to help achieve the party’s long-held goal of dramatically destroying safety net programs.
He has a long history of peddling pseudoscience
Oz, who trained as a cardiac surgeon, rose to fame as a daytime television personality. In the 2000s, he frequently appeared on broadcasts. Oprah Winfrey ShowThe TV host of the same name called him “America’s Doctor.” He then moved on to his own show in 2009. During his 13 years on the air, Oz was repeatedly criticized for pushing questionable solutions, including a sketchy weight loss supplement that landed him in the hot seat of the U.S. Senate.
“My show is about hope,” Oz told senators in 2014. “We have engaged millions of people in programs, including one with the CDC, to help people realize that there are many ways to rethink their future.”
In 2011, Oz told viewers not to drink apple juice over concerns it contained dangerous levels of arsenic. The FDA condemned the advice, saying it was “irresponsible and misleading” to make such a suggestion.
During the pandemic, Oz encouraged people to use the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which then-President Donald Trump announced were effective treatments for COVID-19. (It is not.) washington postOz even urged Jared Kushner to quickly help patients get medication, writing, “We have a potential pandemic solution at our fingertips.”
Oz’s previous support for osteopathic doctor Joseph Mercola, who would eventually become one of the main spreaders of Covid misinformation, was also criticized. My colleague David Corn reported:
Oz has helped distort the national public conversation about COVID-19 through his support of hydroxychloroquine. But his bigger impact on the pandemic may have been his previous support for Mercola. Advancing the career of a colleague who would become the chief promoter of misinformation about Covid, and whose efforts may have left many Americans unvaccinated and thus face dire consequences, hardly fulfills the oath Oz once swore. First, do no harm. .
Oz invested in private health programs.
One of the main concerns raised by Oz’s critics is whether he will cut funding for Medicare and Medicaid. as follows: washington post Trump’s advisers are reportedly preparing to cut Medicaid, which currently serves about 80 million low-income people, in addition to numerous other safety net programs, to offset the cost of Trump’s 2017 tax cut extension.
Oz does not appear to have taken any public position regarding Medicaid. However, he has actively supported privatization of health care programs. In 2020, he wrote an op-ed supporting Medicare Advantage, a private coverage option supported by Trump and Project 2025.
As William Gavin quartz According to reports, Oz has previously disclosed owning at least $600,000 worth of stock in companies that benefit from private Medicare services, raising serious concerns that if confirmed, Oz could finally be able to benefit from services overseen by his agency. This has raised concerns.
Experts have long warned that privatizing Medicare is not a viable solution to reducing government waste and would instead make health care much more difficult for potentially vulnerable communities to access.
But there is reason for hope. As my colleague Julia Métraux reported, existing laws would make it rather difficult for Oz to completely gut Medicare.
His colleagues raised many questions about his ethics.
While Oz has risen to fame, his peers have questioned his motives. In 2011 ABC NewsRichard Besser accused Oz of promoting fear, saying that Oz’s insistence on apple juice was reminiscent of “a fire screaming in a crowded theater.” In 2015, doctors wrote a letter to Columbia University urging them to sever ties with Oz, saying he had “repeatedly demonstrated contempt for science and evidence-based medicine.” It didn’t work at the time. But seven years later, while Oz was campaigning for the Senate, the university finally severed ties.
Dr. Henry Miller of the Pacific Research Institute in California said: “It took too long to remove Oz from Columbia’s outstanding medical faculty.Today’s Medi Page. Miller called Oz “an unethical con man who, for Oz’s own financial gain, makes claims and declarations that are unsupported by science and harm consumers.”
In 2017, scholars wrote a paper titled: Dr. Oz’s Story: Do Ethics, Evidence, and Professional Self-Regulation Work?They called the journalist “a dangerous scoundrel unfit for the job of an American doctor.”
His failed Senate campaign was rife with meritocracy
While running for Senate, Oz’s campaign launched several effective attacks on his rival, Senator John Fetterman. “If only John Fetterman had ever eaten vegetables in his life,” said Oz’s senior communications director. business insider “Then he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and he wouldn’t be in a position where he has to constantly lie about it,” Fetterman said after mocking the infamous crudité video.
Oz’s campaign also mocked Fetterman by including the following line in a September 2022 press release: “We will pay for the additional medical staff he will need to be on hand.”
