It may not have been in the cards for Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve in the U.S. Senate — and, to be fair, Democratic Senator John Fetterman’s tenure has been rather entertaining at times — but he will soon be serving in the second Trump administration.
On Tuesday, following his announcement of Howard Lutnick to head up the Commerce Department, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he has tapped Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator in his administration.
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The current holder of that position is Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who assumed the role in May of 2021, following a brief tenure by Elizabeth Richter as the acting administrator in the opening months of the Biden administration. In Trump’s prior term, Seema Verma served in the role throughout.
Trump announced his Oz pick on Truth Social Tuesday afternoon, citing Oz’s education, training, and expertise, as well as his numerous Daytime Emmy Awards for “The Dr. Oz Show,” and asserting that Oz would work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Trump’s HHS pick) “to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.”
I am very pleased to nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again. He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades. 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.
Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget. Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing 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 and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.
Dr. Oz graduated from Harvard College, and earned a joint MD and MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School, my powerful alma mater. He rose to become a Professor of Surgery at Columbia University, while receiving numerous patents on his medical inventions, authoring more than 400 original publications, and publishing numerous New York Times Best Selling books.
He won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting “The Dr. Oz Show,” where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices, and gave a strong voice to the key pillars of the MAHA Movement. Dr. Oz and his wife, Lisa, expanded this effort by founding HealthCorps, a non-profit that has improved the lives of millions of underserved teens Nationwide over the past two decades.
I have known Dr. Oz for many years, and I am confident he will fight to ensure everyone in America receives the best possible Healthcare, so our Country can be Great and Healthy Again!
The position requires Senate approval, so, theoretically, Fetterman will have a chance to decide whether his 2022 opponent deserves the thumbs up.
