Bastiaan Slabbers via ZUMA Press
Seven Democratic senators are demanding answers from Dr. Mehmet Oz, Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, over his long-held support for private Medicare plans and his financial ties to those programs.
In a letter first obtained by NBC News, Democrats referred to a 2020 op-ed Oz published wherein he called on the US to shift all Americans to Medicare Advantage, a private coverage option favored by Trump and the authors of Project 2025, and effectively eliminate traditional Medicare.
As the Quartz reported last month, Oz has disclosed owning as much as $600,000 of stocks in companies that benefit from private Medicare services. The TV personality, who over the years has been fiercely condemned within the medical community for promoting unfounded medical cures, also reportedly has invested millions in businesses that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is charged with regulating.
“Your advocacy for eliminating the Traditional Medicare program and replacing it with MedicareAdvantage also raises questions about your own financial conflicts of interest,” the letter from Democratic lawmakers read.
The letter comes one week after Public Citizen, a progressive watchdog group, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that Oz violated the organization’s influencer marketing ethics while pushing herbal supplements on his social media accounts. Three days after the letter’s release, Oz vowed to stop promoting wellness products if he’s confirmed, according to ABC News.