From TV to CMS? Trump picks Dr. Oz to run Medicare and Medicaid, and some aren’t applauding.

Mehmet Oz, MD, has been one of America’s most famous doctors for years, and now he’s poised to take oversight of the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has nominated Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It’s the latest in a series of unconventional cabinet picks for Trump, including his nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

In announcing his pick, Trump touted the prospect of Oz and Kennedy working together to lead the nation’s health policy. The health department includes the CMS.

“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake,” Trump said.

• Read more: Concerns mount over prospect of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading HHS

A cardiothoracic surgeon who once led the heart institute at New York Presbyterian Medical Center, Oz gained fame through frequent appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. He later had his own show which ran for 13 years. He stepped away from the show to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, and he lost to current U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

“Our broken Healthcare system harms everyday Americans, and crushes our country’s budget,” Trump said in his announcement. “Dr. Oz will be a leader in disease prevention, so we get the best results in the world for every dollar we spend on healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste in fraud within our country’s most expensive Government Agency.”

Like some of Trump’s other choices for top Cabinet posts, including Kennedy, Oz brings no experience running a large, government organization.

In a post on X, Oz said he welcomed the opportunity.

“I am honored to be nominated by @realDonaldTrump to lead CMS. I look forward to serving my country to Make America Healthy Again under the leadership of HHS Secretary @RobertKennedyJr.,” Oz wrote.

Kennedy said on X that he is “very excited” by the choice of Oz and thanked Trump for an “outstanding nomination.”

“Welcome Dr​. Oz to ​The Avengers,” Kennedy wrote.

Not a ‘daytime talk show’

The CMS’s programs touch the lives of 160 million people, or roughly 1 in 2 Americans, through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Marketplaces.

The head of the CMS requires Senate confirmation, and with a relatively narrow margin in the Senate, Oz would need to hold onto the support of all Republican senators if most Democrats vote against the pick. Republicans are slated to hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., offered a critical assessment on X.

“Running Medicare and Medicaid for over 100 million Americans isn't like hosting a daytime talk show,” Warren wrote. “Dr. Oz is another rich guy who doesn't care if your health care costs go up or an insurance company denies you coverage. These decisions have life and death consequences.”

Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, assailed the nomination of Oz.

“Given the crucial importance of this agency, I am alarmed that President-elect Trump has chosen a TV celebrity without the experience or background to lead it,” Pallone said in a statement Tuesday. “Unfortunately, this nomination further demonstrates that Trump is not concerned about Americans’ health care.”

“By nominating both RFK, Jr. and Dr. Oz, Trump is doubling down on leaders that peddle in dangerous misinformation that endangers public health,” Pallone said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is a physician and he offered a statement of support for Oz. Cassidy will serve as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next year.

“It has been over a decade since a physician has been at the helm of CMS, and I look forward to discussing his priorities,” Cassidy wrote on X. “This is a great opportunity to help patients and implement conservative health reforms.”

An interesting vote to watch in the Senate could involve David McCormick, the Republican Senate nominee from Pennsylvania. The Associated Press and other outlets have called McCormick the victor in his race against longtime U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., but Casey has not conceded and votes are still being tallied. McCormick narrowly lost to Oz in the 2022 Senate Republican primary.

Oz may be able to count a vote from Sen. Fetterman, the man who defeated him in a Senate race two years ago.

Fetterman told CNN that he could support Oz if he makes a commitment to preserve Medicare and Medicaid, and he reiterated that in a post on X.

“If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” Fetterman wrote.

‘Another odd appointment’

Oz brings credentials as a physician to the post, unlike Kennedy, who doesn’t have a medical or scientific background. Healthcare leaders have denounced Trump’s choice of Kennedy to lead the health department, citing his vaccine skepticism and lack of experience in health or science.

Still, Oz received plenty of scrutiny during his years hosting his television show. Critics bashed Oz for pushing what he touted as miracle cures for weight loss on his show. In a 2014 study, researchers found “believable evidence” for only a third of the recommendations on “The Dr. Oz Show.”

Jonathan Reiner, MD, a professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, notes Trump’s choice of Oz is “another odd appointment.”

“True, Oz is a doctor, but the CMS post is something more suited for a policy wonk,” Reiner wrote on X. “Before assuming her post, the current administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure was deputy director for policy at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight within CMS, and earlier at HHS as director of coverage policy.”

Annie Andrews, MD, who ran for Congress in 2022, assailed the Oz nomination on the heels of Trump’s choice of Kennedy to lead the health department.

“If you asked any doctor, any reasonable doctor in this country, who, like, the worst two people for these jobs would be, these would be two people on the top of the list,” Andrews said in a video she posted to X.

Andrews said cuts to Medicare or Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals would potentially disrupt healthcare.

“Our healthcare system is built around the existence of the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Doctors, offices and hospitals rely on funding from these two programs to keep their doors open,” Andrews said.

Hospitals and physicians have both bemoaned Medicare reimbursements. Hospitals have said Medicare and Medicaid don’t offer sufficient reimbursements for the care they provide.

Doctors and their trade groups have assailed CMS for continually cutting reimbursements to doctors, saying the cuts threaten access to care and could spur some doctors to opt against seeing Medicare patients. Physicians and hospitals have called on CMS and Congress to come up with a better payment structure for doctors.

• Read more: Medicare 2025 payment cuts to doctors are finalized, and physicians are fuming

Trump has said he has no plans to cut Medicare, and some analysts have expressed doubts that he will impose cuts to beneficiaries.

Seema Verma served as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Trump administration. She said at the HLTH Conference last month that she didn’t foresee Medicare cuts under Trump, saying, “He’s very protective of the program.”

When it comes to Medicaid, Verma said Trump would definitely give more deference to the states regarding Medicare, and he’d be focused on seeing money go to those in need.