Celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz was confirmed by the Senate along partisan lines Thursday to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filling a pivotal spot in President Donald Trump‘s public health agency apparatus.
Oz was confirmed 53-45, with no Democrats supporting Trump’s nominee.
In his new capacity, Oz will oversee the largest payer for healthcare in the United States, providing insurance to more than 160 million people through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Obamacare insurance exchanges.
Oz’s Emmy-winning talk show and his career as a cardiothoracic surgeon at Columbia University make him a household name and among the most well-known appointees in Trump’s Make America Healthy Again coalition.
In March, Oz breezed through a largely cordial confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the CMS. The questioning largely revolved around impending changes to the Medicaid program to meet the proposed fiscal changes in a House budget resolution passed earlier this year.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) said before Thursday’s vote that Oz “clearly met the standard of the Finance Committee’s arduous nomination process” and displayed “diligence and accessibility” during the confirmation process.
“At his hearing, Dr. Oz spoke strongly about his desire to modernize CMS and encourage a healthy lifestyle for all Americans,” Crapo said on the Senate floor. “His vision for treating the underlying causes of chronic disease and equipping providers with innovative technologies to serve patients will also be a much-needed sea change at CMS.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the leading Democrat on the Finance Committee, said Thursday before the vote that Oz repeatedly dodged questions about Republican Medicaid cuts and GOP opposition to a Biden-era rule increasing nursing home staffing minimums.
Wyden also highlighted that Oz, on his talk show, promoted various unproven wellness and weight loss products, such as raspberry ketones. The senator likened these practices to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promoting the use of Vitamin A and cod liver oil to combat measles.
“The dangers of promoting unqualified wellness grifters to be in charge of healthcare in our country is not just a talking point,” Wyden said. “These are real and deadly matters.”
Wyden said Senate Republicans supporting Oz’s confirmation “are sending a very clear message that they’re a lot more afraid of Donald Trump than having to answer to their own constituents.”
Kennedy is expected to give more deference to Oz in areas of health insurance and hospital policy under CMS jurisdiction than he has so far with other agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health.
During his two confirmation hearings, Kennedy stressed his credentials in identifying the sources of chronic disease through improving oversight of the food and pharmaceutical industries and restoring “gold standard” scientific research. But he confused Medicare and Medicaid, earning rebukes from Democrats.
Senators on both sides of the aisle, by contrast, complimented Oz during the confirmation hearing for his attention to detail and ability to answer nuanced questions about each program.
Oz did have a brief challenge from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who probed the celebrity doctor about the support he showed on his television program more than a decade ago for transgender medical procedures for minors.
Earlier this week, Oz responded to Hawley’s questions on the record, saying that his past support for the medical transition of minors was founded on approaches that have, in the intervening years, been proven to be “not sufficiently evidence-based and contained inconsistencies.”
Oz also told Hawley that he is “unequivocally pro-life” and looks forward to “advancing a pro-life agenda at CMS” following his confirmation.
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The Senate still needs to confirm two more Trump nominees to round out the administration’s public health apparatus.
The Senate health committee is expected to hold confirmation hearings in the coming weeks for the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director and the surgeon general. The hearings have not yet been scheduled.
