As Real Public Health Experts Are Purged, Dr. Oz Gets Confirmed to Key Health Department Role
Capping off a week where Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired nearly 7,000 employees in his department, on Thursday, the Senate confirmed Dr. Oz—the reality TV star and failed GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania—to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) by a 53-45, party line vote. Don’t worry, America: Kennedy may have terminated the career civil servants and public health experts staving off the next pandemic…but our access to health insurance is now in the hands of a famed, prolific dog-killer who, as recently as December, appeared to be violating federal guidelines to shill shady vitamins to teens on TikTok.
As the administrator of CMS, Oz, who opposed the Affordable Care Act on the 2022 campaign trail, now oversees a $1.5 trillion budget and insurance coverage for more than 160 million Americans covered through the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Medicaid is the primary source of payment for sexual and reproductive health services—it pays for 75% of family planning services and covers four in 10 births. And, based on what few answers Oz sprinkled among his countless non-answers during his confirmation hearing, we can deduce that he wants to strip as many people as possible from the program. At one hearing last month, Oz told senators he was interested in enforcing work requirements for Medicaid recipients, a thinly veiled threat to millions of low-income and disabled people’s access to health coverage. This comes at a time when the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are very publicly eyeing gutting Medicaid and Medicare, baselessly alleging widespread fraud.
Also during Oz’s hearings, he assured Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that he is “unequivocally pro-life” and determined to gut funding for abortion providers. But federal law already bars federal funding from paying for abortions—so, as if that weren’t shitty enough, defunding health providers that offer abortion services really just means gutting funding for a range of services, like contraception, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and more.
In 2022, Oz praised the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling that ended the federal right to abortion. Now, he could play a decisive role in letting hospitals across the country get away with violating pregnant patients’ rights to lifesaving abortion care. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), hospitals that receive Medicare funding are required to provide stabilizing, emergency care to patients—including abortions for nonviable, dangerous pregnancies. Under the Biden administration, CMS investigated hospitals for reported EMTALA violations involving abortion; if the hospital is found at fault, they can face fines or penalties to discourage these violations. As pregnant people continue to be denied stabilizing abortions in abortion-banned states, CMS should play a greater role in holding hospitals accountable. Instead, we can pretty much expect Oz to take things in the opposite direction.
“It’s clear that Dr. Oz will do anything for power and influence, including trading in people’s access to sexual and reproductive health care,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement after Oz’s confirmation. “With Dr. Oz as CMS administrator, millions of people, including Planned Parenthood health center patients, may lose their ability to get birth control, cancer screenings, gender-affirming care, STI testing and treatment, and more.”
Oz’s confirmation comes after a week of brutal cuts at HHS, which included entire agencies overseeing key research into racial disparities in maternal mortality, infertility and treatments, and prevention of intimate partner violence being terminated. At the same time, HHS froze Title X grants to over a dozen family planning providers, alleging these providers ran afoul of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The Guardian reports that CMS is expected to soon lose about 300 staffers—specifically, those overseeing health coverage for marginalized communities and how to reduce the costs of health care. Oz, whose years-long talk show platformed anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists and a range of medical misinformation for his own enrichment, told the Senate he intends to wield CMS to promote healthier individual lifestyles and integrate artificial intelligence into the administration of health care. All of that from a reality TV quack sounds… fucking awful, thanks!
American politics has long been a cesspool of mediocre white men, but under the current administration, it’s no longer enough to merely be mediocre: You have to be among the biggest and most nakedly corrupt idiots in your field to qualify for leadership positions. Congrats to Dr. Oz on making the cut!