On November 19, President-elect Donald Trump named Dr. Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), a large federal agency that oversees health insurance programs for elderly and poor Americans as well as the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges. Best known as a TV personality dispensing medical advice on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and later his own program, Oz was an accomplished, Ivy League-educated surgeon before he entered the political arena in 2022.
From heart surgeon to celebrity doctor
Oz was born to Turkish immigrants in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio,, where his father was completing a residency at Case Western Reserve University. A gifted student, he received his BA in Biology from Harvard University in 1982 before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a dual degree in medicine and business in 1986. Oz “became a doctor in large measure because his father was one,” said Michael Specter at The New Yorker. Oz went on to become a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon at Columbia University in New York City.
Oz “found that he loved being the public face of medical advancement,” when he participated in heart surgery for former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre’s brother Frank in 1996, said Olivia Nuzzi at New York Magazine. In 2004, he appeared for the first time on “Oprah.” “With his good looks and requisite regular-guy patter, Oz was a natural addition” to the show as a regular, said Hadley Freeman at The Guardian.
His frequent appearances on Oprah Winfrey‘s popular show made him a trusted voice in medicine who then launched his own program, “The Dr. Oz Show.” He drew significant criticism for advancing fringe medical theories into public discourse and hawking dubious products. Oz “publicly endorsed dozens of egregiously un-scientific ‘quack’ treatments,” including the idea that taking coffee bean extract can help people lose weight, said Erin Brodwin at Business Insider. Oz “has done a lot to damage his credibility as a medical doctor over the years” with his questionable medical guidance, said Abby Phillip at The Washington Post.
Pivot to politics
Oz was appointed by President Trump to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition in 2018, a position he held until he was removed by President Biden in 2022. He announced his candidacy for the open Pennsylvania Senate seat on November 30, 2021.
Oz received the coveted backing of former President Trump in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary and then beat out Republican Dave McCormick by fewer than a thousand votes in the May 17, 2022 primary. Oz’s Democratic opponent in the general election, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, suffered a stroke just before the primary and appeared diminished on the campaign trail.
But Oz was hurt by a number of unforced errors. The most damaging was a widely mocked campaign video showing Oz shopping for vegetables at a supermarket he mistakenly called “Wegner’s,” which played into Fetterman’s critique of Oz as a carpetbagger who didn’t know Pennsylvania at all. The video was “yet another example of the out-of-touch and often bizarre behavior that has defined the New Jersey multimillionaire’s cringeworthy Senate run,” said Kim Kelly at NBC News. Fetterman won by almost 5 points.
Oz’s nomination has been less controversial than some of Trump’s other picks, drawing praise from moderate Republicans in the Senate, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). It will be “helpful to have someone who has been a health care provider running that agency,” said Collins to Politico. Oz’s investments in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, however, call into question “whether he can be trusted to act on behalf of the American people,” said Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, at NPR.
It is not clear exactly how Oz’s stewardship of CMS fits into Trump’s healthcare plans. Oz, though is “a prominent hype man for Medicare Advantage, the privately run alternative to government health insurance for senior citizens,” said Chris Stanton at New York Magazine and some critics fear his appointment may undercut the government’s role in the Medicare system.