Shocking Pick: Trump Nominates Dr. Oz to Head Medicare!

Should he be confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his anti-vaccine stance, might end up collaborating with another controversial figure in health advice: Dr. Mehmet Oz. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday his nomination of Oz to oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In a public statement, Trump mentioned that upon confirmation, Oz would focus on “eliminating waste and fraud in our nation’s most costly governmental agency”—a move that Medicare advocates interpret as an attempt to privatize the healthcare service, which currently benefits over 66 million elderly Americans.

According to a 2022 report by The Lever, Oz has actively promoted Medicare Advantage plans on his television program, The Dr. Oz Show. He featured a segment on the insurance provider MedicareAdvantage.com, persuading his audience to enroll through a specific hotline. These insurance plans are often criticized for requiring pre-authorization for certain medical treatments, engaging in misleading marketing practices, and generally disadvantaging elderly patients.

Matt Stoller from the American Economic Liberties Project expressed concerns about Oz’s suitability for such an influential role, managing a trillion dollars in healthcare funds, given his past opposition to traditional Medicare.

The group Social Security Works also highlighted that plans to fully privatize Medicare feature in Project 2025, a far-right policy framework that Trump has attempted to dissociate from throughout his campaign.

“Keep your hands off our earned benefits!” the group declared.

With the backing of Trump, Oz unsuccessfully attempted to secure a seat in the U.S. Senate to represent Pennsylvania in 2022. Trump stated on Tuesday that, if confirmed, Oz would work alongside Kennedy to challenge the “illness industrial complex.”

Kennedy’s controversial approaches include halting pharmaceutical research, removing fluoride from drinking water, which is known to prevent tooth decay, and dismissing FDA employees who have supposedly conducted a “war on public health” by suppressing the use of ivermectin and raw milk, both linked to health risks.

Oz has long been a proponent of questionable health advice. A 2014 study by the University of Alberta, published in the British Medical Journal, concluded that half of his recommendations were either baseless or incorrect. He once endorsed a study suggesting that green coffee bean pills could significantly aid in weight loss, though this study was later withdrawn. Additionally, Oz claimed that consuming foods like red onions and endives could cut cancer risk by up to 75%, a statement debunked by a study in the journal Nutrition and Cancer as no food can perform such miracles.

Furthermore, Oz has maintained connections with multi-level marketing firms that sell vitamin supplements often falsely touted as disease cures or preventatives.

“Dr. Oz is unfit to run CMS,” stated Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University. “He promotes vaccine conspiracy theories and fraudulent cures, profiting from fringe medical practices.”

“By nominating RFK Jr. and Mehmet Oz,” he added, “Trump is blatantly disregarding science. After 40 years in public health, this is deeply disappointing.”