March 13, 2025

Warren Sounds Alarm About Dr. Oz’s Dangerous Vision for Medicare, His Conflicts of Interest, and His Promotion of Fake Treatments Ahead of Confirmation Hearing

Oz Has Advocated for Complete Privatization of Medicare

“The agency deserves a leader that is willing to put the interests of patients, providers, and taxpayers first – not an individual that seeks to privatize those programs and has spent much of his career profiting from entities that are squeezing every last health care dollar out of patients and taxpayers.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump’s nominee for Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ahead of his Friday confirmation hearing, demanding answers to questions about his plan to eliminate Traditional Medicare, his serious conflicts of interest, his dangerous anti-abortion views, and more.

“I have serious concerns about your ability to adequately fulfill the responsibilities of the position. In particular, I am troubled by your advocacy for completely privatizing Medicare and your deep financial ties to health care companies that receive significant payments from CMS. I lack confidence in your ability to protect Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and the millions of Americans that rely on these programs to provide access to the health care they need,” wrote Senator Warren.

Senator Warren sought clarification from Dr. Oz across key areas including:

His plan to privatize Medicare and financial ties to giant private health insurers that would benefit;
His troubling conflicts of interest, and whether he will adequately recuse and agree not to abuse the revolving door to lobby CMS after he leaves government service;
His promotion of products that lack scientific evidence and his actions to comply with the FTC’s disclosure requirements;
His deep financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry and his views on Medicare drug negotiations;
His stances on Medicaid access and coverage for Americans;
His vision for the Affordable Care Act, which he’s previously criticized, suggesting he’d use his authority to undermine the law;
His hostile record toward abortion and how he would use CMS authorities to impact access to care;
His stance on protecting nursing home residents, including a minimum staffing rule;
His views on consolidation in the health care system;
His views on physician payment rates, which are often overvalued by specialist physicians on the review committee relative to primary care, a clear conflict of interest; and
His plans to address data collection gaps regarding financial, ownership, and coverage data from health care entities regulated by CMS.

Senator Warren asked Dr. Oz to be prepared to answer 176 questions at his hearing on March 14, 2025.

Immediately following his nomination, Senator Warren sent a letter to Dr. Oz, to which he has yet to respond, with serious concerns about his ability to fulfill the responsibilities of CMS Administrator.

Senator Warren led strong oversight on Dr. Oz through his confirmation process for his conflicts of interest and his anti-abortion views:

In March 2025, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Dr. Oz, criticizing his serious conflicts of interest and asking him to make a series of commitments to mitigate them.
In February 2025, Senator Warren and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) criticized Dr. Oz’s hostile anti-abortion record. As CMS Administrator, Dr. Oz would be in charge of Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage, exercising broad authority over reproductive health care access.
In December 2024, Following his nomination, Senator Warren pressed the nominee on his advocacy to eliminate Traditional Medicare and his deep financial ties to private health insurers that would benefit from that move.

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