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affordable care act
Watchdogs Renew Warnings of 'Profoundly Unqualified' Dr. Oz After Senate Hearing
"Between his massive conflicts of interest across the healthcare sector and his endorsement of further privatizing Medicare, Oz would be a threat to the health of tens of millions of Americans," said one opponent.
Mar 14, 2025
Progressive watchdog organizations responded to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee's Friday hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz by again sounding the alarm about the heart surgeon and former television host nominated to lead a key federal healthcare agency.
Since President Donald Trumpannounced Oz as his nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last November, opponents have spotlighted the doctor's promotion of unproven products, investments in companies with interests in the federal agency, and support for expanding Medicare Advantage during an unsuccessful U.S. Senate run in 2022.
"Dr. Oz's career promoting dubious medical treatments and pseudoscience often for personal financial gain should immediately disqualify him from serving in any public health capacity, let alone in a top administration health post," Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk said in a Friday statement.
"Dr. Oz's nomination is part of President Trump's grand plan to enrich his corporate donors and wealthy friends while the rest of us get higher costs, less coverage, and weakened protections."
In December, Carrk's group found that based on disclosures from Oz's 2022 run against U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), the Republican doctor reported "up to $56 million in investments in three companies" with direct CMS interests—including Sharecare, which became the "exclusive in-home care supplemental benefit program" for 1.5 million Medicare Advantage enrollees.
A spokesperson said at the time that Oz has since divested from Sharecare. However, critics have still expressed concern about how the nominee's confirmation could boost Republican efforts to expand Medicare Advantage—health insurance plans for seniors administered by private companies rather than the government.
"As a self-interested advocate of privatizing Medicare at a higher cost and more denials of care for seniors, Dr. Oz is surely eager to enact the Trump-Republican budget plan to gut Medicare and Medicaid and jeopardize health coverage for millions of Americans—all to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires and price gouging corporations," said Carrk. "Dr. Oz's nomination is part of President Trump's grand plan to enrich his corporate donors and wealthy friends while the rest of us get higher costs, less coverage, and weakened protections—especially those with preexisting conditions."
As he faces Senate confirmation, remember that Dr. Oz: -Pushed Medicare privatization plans on his show -Owns ~$600k in stock in private insurers -Has ties to pyramid scheme companies that promote fake medical cures His main qualification to oversee CMS is loyalty to Trump.
— Robert Reich ( @rbreich.bsky.social) March 14, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, has been similarly critical of Oz, and remained so after senators questioned him on Friday, saying in a statement that "Mehmet Oz showed he is profoundly unqualified to lead any part of our healthcare system, let alone an agency as important as CMS."
"Between his massive conflicts of interest across the healthcare sector and his endorsement of further privatizing Medicare, Oz would be a threat to the health of tens of millions of Americans," Weissman warned. "Privatized Medicare Advantage plans deliver inferior care and cost taxpayers nearly $100 billion annually in excess costs."
"It is time for President Trump to put down the remote, stop finding nominees on television, and instead nominate people with actual experience and a belief in the importance of protecting crucial health programs like Medicare and Medicaid," he argued, taking aim at not only the president but also his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency(DOGE) and, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the conspiracy theorist now running the Department of Health and Human Services.
Weissman declared that "Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr. fail to put the American people first as they seek to gut agencies and make dangerous cuts to health programs to fund tax cuts for billionaires. Oz indicated he would not oppose such cuts, bringing more destruction to lifesaving programs. Oz has no place in government and should be roundly rejected by every senator."
During a Friday exchange with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the committee's ranking member, Oz refused to decisively commit to opposing cuts to Medicaid. As the Alliance for Retired Americans highlighted, Oz kept that up when given opportunities to revise his answer by Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
Other moments from the hearing that garnered attention included Oz's exchange with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) about Affordable Care Act tax credits and Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) calling out the doctor for his unwillingness "to take accountability for" his "promotion of unproven snake oil remedies" to millions of TV viewers.
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Senate Confirms 'Profoundly Unqualified' RFK Jr. to Lead Nation's Health Agencies
"No senator should have voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," said one consumer advocate.
Feb 13, 2025
The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to confirm vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to lead the nation's health policy, a move that one advocate said puts "our entire healthcare system and countless patient lives in jeopardy."
"This is a shameful day for the U.S. Senate, an institution that likes to laud itself for its careful deliberation and seriousness of purpose," said Robert Weissman, co-president of government watchdog Public Citizen. "No senator should have voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Every single senator knows he's not just profoundly unqualified to head the nation's health agency but a threat to public health in the nation."
Every Democratic senator voted against Kennedy's confirmation to lead President Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), while Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to oppose Kennedy. McConnell survived polio as a child and said Kennedy's "record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories" about vaccines influenced his decision.
The confirmation followed Senate hearings in which Kennedy had nothing negative to say about the country's for-profit health insurance system, which has made insurers increasingly wealthy as patients' healthcare treatments are denied and delayed.
He insisted that Americans "would prefer to be on private insurance" and displayed a lack of knowledge about Medicaid and Medicare, appearing to confuse the two. He also denied being anti-vaccine while refusing to reject the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, a failure that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is a physician, claimed to be troubled by—but Cassidy went ahead with his vote for Kennedy nonetheless.
"Senators who rubber stamp this dangerous nomination in fear of an angry tweet from President Trump cannot later feign concern and surprise when Kennedy's actions end up harming everyday Americans. They, too, will own the consequences."
"Any vote to confirm Kennedy to lead HHS is a vote to put our public health at risk, and senators know it," said Tony Carrk, executive director of government watchdog Accountable.US. "The war Kennedy is itching to wage against vaccines and scientific research will undoubtedly cost lives and could lead to the resurgence of diseases once thought dormant."
"Among the last people who should be overseeing our public health is Kennedy, with his non-existent health policy credentials, embrace of ludicrous conspiracies, and judgment so lacking that he potentially committed felony voter fraud despite courts warning him not to," Carrk added, referring to Accountable's accusation that Kennedy cast a ballot last year from an address that wasn't his. "Senators who rubber stamp this dangerous nomination in fear of an angry tweet from President Trump cannot later feign concern and surprise when Kennedy's actions end up harming everyday Americans. They, too, will own the consequences."
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy angered officials in Samoa, where he spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories just before 83 people died of measles in a 2019 outbreak. Samoa's director-general of health, Alec Ekeroma, accused Kennedy of "a total fabrication" when he told senators many of the people who died didn't have measles.
Before the Senate voted on Thursday, Ekeroma said Kennedy's confirmation to lead U.S. health agencies, which control funding for international health and vaccine initiatives as well as domestic policy, would be "a danger to us, a danger to everyone."
Weissman credited many Democratic senators for their "truly heroic efforts... to rally opposition against this dangerous nominee," and warned that "it will fall on the American people to confront his lies and policies and to defend basic public health principles and institutions."
"We should expect Robert F. Kennedy to continue spreading his conspiracies, anti-vaccine propaganda, and anti-science crusade," said Weissman. "We should expect him to deliver on his promises to sabotage our public health institutions. And we should expect him to enable and facilitate the effort to slash health care coverage for lower-income people, privatize Medicare, and undermine the subsidies and consumer protections on the Affordable Care Act exchanges."
Kennedy has claimed that he has "often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions," but advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs noted that he provided little information in his confirmation hearings about how he would challenge Big Pharma by lowering drug prices and defending the Medicare negotiations introduced by former President Joe Biden.
"Secretary Kennedy has a critical opportunity—and responsibility—to build on existing measures to rein in Big Pharma's price-gouging and lower drug costs for patients," said Merith Basey, the group's executive director. "We are ready to work with him to ensure Medicare drug price negotiations continue, out-of-pocket costs are reduced, and competition in the marketplace is increased through reforms to end abusive pharmaceutical monopolies that harm patients."
"But make no mistake," added Basey. "Patients fought hard to secure the 2022 prescription drug law, and we will fiercely oppose any efforts to weaken it."
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McConnell's Stumbles in Senate Spark Call for Medicare for All
"He won't have to worry about medical bills or skipping tests because he has high-quality, government-funded healthcare—the thing he's fought to deny the rest of us," said one single-payer campaigner.
Feb 05, 2025
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell reportedly fell twice on Capitol Hill Wednesday, but as one healthcare advocate highlighted, the 82-year-old Kentucky Republican—who's called Medicare for All a "radical scheme" that "would be serious bad news for America's hospital industry"—won't struggle to get any needed treatment.
"Mitch McConnell fell again and is obviously not well," said Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health—which fights for universal, single-payer healthcare—on social media.
"But he won't have to worry about medical bills or skipping tests because he has high-quality, government-funded healthcare—the thing he's fought to deny the rest of us," D'Arrigo added. "We need Medicare for All."
Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan and Max Cohen reported Wednesday that McConnell fell while exiting the Senate chamber, then fell again while entering a Republican lunch.
A spokesperson for the former majority leader told Bresnahan—and various other journalists—that "Sen. McConnell is fine. The lingering effects of polio in his left leg will not disrupt his regular schedule of work."
McConnell contracted polio as a toddler in 1944, according toThe Associated Press. His leg was paralyzed, but after two years of treatment, he was ultimately able to walk without a brace.
After the senator's Wednesday falls, Bresnahan said that "McConnell is using a wheelchair as a precautionary measure, we're told."
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires members of Congress to obtain coverage via the D.C. Health Link Small Business Market, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's human resources agency. For lawmakers with Medicare, the federal health program for American seniors serves as a "secondary payer."
The federal government covers up to three-quarters of the premium for lawmakers' primary health plans, according to a Congressional Research Service report from 2017. Another CRS report from last June points out that "in addition, the Office of the Attending Physician provides emergency medical assistance for members of Congress, justices of the Supreme Court, staff, and visitors. Additional services are offered to members who choose to enroll for an annual fee ($650.00 in 2023)."
Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans don't have adequate health plans or lack coverage altogether. Citing the U.S. Census Bureau, the Commonwealth Fund's November 2024 report on its biennial health insurance survey notes that "an estimated 26 million Americans, or 8% of the U.S. population, lacked health insurance in 2023," and although the United States is still behind countries with universal coverage, before the ACA, 49 million, or 16% of the population, didn't have any coverage.
The U.S.-based Commonwealth Fund found that "nearly a quarter of working-age adults have insurance that leaves them underinsured," and two-thirds of those individuals had coverage through an employer plan. The survey also shows that people who were uninsured or underinsured often did not fill prescriptions, get recommended care, or visit a needed doctor or specialist.
Another survey, released Tuesday by Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and Gallup, highlights that healthcare access and affordability is a leading priority for the American public, and a majority wants the federal government to act.
"Americans ranked improving healthcare access and affordability as the highest public health priority for government leaders to address out of 15 options," states a report from the pollsters. "One in four in the U.S. selected this issue as their highest priority and more than half (52%) rated it as their first, second, or third priority."
"Majorities of both Republicans and Republican leaners, and Democrats and Democratic leaners, chose the federal government over state government as the more effective force for addressing each of the issues that emerged as a top priority for them," adds the report—which comes as the Trump administration and billionaire Elon Musk attack the federal government.
Despite public opinion polling, President Donald Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress—who have long tried to restrict or fully roll back the ACA—aren't expected to work to expand health coverage, particularly via progressive proposals like Medicare for All, which has been championed on Capitol Hill by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.).
Still, advocates of Medicare for All
continue to call for it. As Sanders said Monday on Musk-owned X: "The U.S. spends 2x more per capita on healthcare than any other nation. Yet 85 million are uninsured or underinsured, 68,000 die because they can't afford a doctor, and we pay the highest prices in the world for Rx drugs. Healthcare is a human right. We must pass Medicare for All."
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