President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he is nominating Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator.
"He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades," Trump said in a statement.
Oz rose to fame on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and then launched his own program, "The Dr. Oz Show."
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He broke into politics in 2022, running for the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania. Oz lost in a close race to John Fetterman.
As the administrator of Medicare and Medicaid Services, Oz would serve under the Secretary for Health & Human Services. Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy to lead that department.
"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," Trump said. "Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget."
While Oz is an accomplished surgeon, he's also faced criticism for promoting health products and weight-loss ideas on his TV show that Congress believed were bogus.
A study published in the British Medical Journal examined 479 of Oz's medical recommendations from 40 episodes and showed 15% of those contradicted scientific evidence.
