OAN Staff Abril Elfi
2:03 PM – Tuesday, November 19, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican heart surgeon and longtime Trump ally, will oversee the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in his new cabinet.
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On Tuesday, Trump released a statement announcing his nomination.
“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said. “He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor, and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades. 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. “
“Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country,” Trump continued. “He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”
CMS operates and oversees programs that provide health coverage to around one out of every 2 Americans, “including Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Obamacare marketplace exchange Healthcare.gov.,” CNBC reported.
Oz is best known for hosting “The Dr. Oz Show” on television from 2009 to 2022, in addition to being a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show.
On both programs, he provided a slew of medical advice to viewers. However, critics of his have referred to his advice as “quack” medicine, as Oz has previously dabbled in the art of “Reiki,” a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also allegedly promotes healing.
Back in 2022, Oz ran for the U.S. Senate, losing his race to John Fetterman (D-P.A.).
Oz is also reportedly a “secular Muslim whose wife and children are Christian,” in his own words, but he has not made his religious background a talking point in any political campaign.
Additionally, “some of his comments about Islam—including a warning about Sharia law in the United States… have been viewed by fellow Muslims as Islamophobic signaling,” the New York Times reported.
“We don’t want Sharia law in America,” Oz asserted previously. “I’m a secular Muslim. I don’t want any of these religious fanatics playing a role in American society.”
Regarding his schooling, he is a Harvard University graduate and he earned a joint MD and MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Wharton Business School. He later became the Professor of Surgery at Columbia University.
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