SIGN: A snake-oil salesman like Dr. Oz shouldn't be leading the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

The petition to the Senate reads:

"Do everything in your power to stop Dr. Mehmet Oz's nomination to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). A celebrity TV doctor who promotes unproven weight loss treatments and bunk science about COVID-19 should not be in charge of Medicare and Medicaid. Put the health and well-being of tens of millions of Americans first by voting NO on Dr. Oz as CMS chief."

Donald Trump has nominated a celebrity TV doctor who has peddled fake cures for his own financial gain to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

By now, we shouldn't be surprised, but it's still appalling! It's bad enough that Dr. Mehmet Oz has a history of using his celebrity status to promote unproven treatments for weight loss and COVID-19. But did you know that Oz also supports privatizing Medicare and Medicaid? 

He has long been a cheerleader for Medicare Advantage, a federal program that lets seniors buy private health insurance for lower premiums instead of enrolling in traditional Medicare. At face value, the program appears to give seniors more coverage options, but because there is no requirement for these private health plans to cover all patients' needs, many seniors remain underinsured. In fact, a Wall Street Journal exposé last year found that the patients on Medicare Advantage who required the most care were forced to enroll in traditional Medicare after their private insurance refused to cover essential services. The result? Private insurance companies that provide Medicare Advantage plans are raking in billions of taxpayer dollars to diagnose these patients without fully treating them.

To make matters worse, taxpayers pay 22% more per person who enrolls in Medicare Advantage compared to traditional Medicare.

Oz is a champion of Medicare Advantage. In fact, he often hosted segments on his hit TV show, "The Dr. Oz Show," that were sponsored by MedicareAdvantage.com. And there was certainly an incentive for him to do so.

According to his disclosures in 2022 when he ran for office in Pennsylvania (and lost!), Oz owned up to $33.7 million in stock in companies that do business with CMS, including between $280,000 and $600,000 in shares of UnitedHealth Group and between $50,000 and $100,000 in shares of CVS Health. Both companies offer Medicare Advantage plans.

If his stock portfolio is even a fraction of what it was in 2022, Oz could make millions of dollars should he take charge of CMS and privatize Medicare and Medicaid. That sounds like a potential conflict of interest to us.

Nearly 160 million people get their health-care coverage through Medicare or Medicaid--most of them women and elderly individuals living in poverty. Privatization would put these successful programs in the hands of health insurance fat cats who care more about profits than the well-being of the American people. We can't sit by and let Oz take charge of CMS.

Sign the UltraViolet Action petition today to tell the Senate to vote NO on Dr. Oz to lead CMS!