The Senate confirmed former TV star and heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz today in a strictly partisan vote to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he will oversee more than $1.5 trillion in federal health spending.
The 53-45 vote split perfectly along party lines, with Oz now set to oversee insurance coverage for more than 160 million Americans.
Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) expressed concern over Oz’s previous stances regarding transgenderism and abortion, but voted for the former GOP Senate candidate in the end on Thursday.
When reached for comment in March, an Oz spokesperson told The Daily Wire: “Dr. Oz fully understands the harms caused to minors by such procedures and is committed to implementing President Donald J. Trump’s agenda of protecting children so they can grow to live out their God-given potential.”
The statement, which comes shortly after Oz advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee by a 14-13 vote, seems to have cleared up some apprehensions about where Oz stood on the hot-button issue, which drove many voters to the polls in November.
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Oz had also defended Roe v. Wade in 2019, but in a 2022 op-ed, the doctor clarified his pro-life position.
Oz takes the helm amid a significant downsizing at HHS, where a reorganization launched Tuesday by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency eliminated 10,000 jobs department-wide.
The cuts directly led to the firing of 300 CMS employees, but closed five HHS offices tasked with assisting states with Medicare issues, with similar cutbacks indirectly affecting Oz’s new venture, Politico reports.
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During the confirmation hearings, Oz closely aligned himself with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda to “Make America Healthy Again” by focusing on combatting obesity and supporting preventative care measures.
“The deeper promise that we should all be making to America is we’re going to make it easy for America to do the right thing when it comes to their health,” Oz said during his confirmation hearing, per The Washington Post.
The new administrator will immediately face Medicaid reform demands, as House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee seek $880 billion in savings to curb what they claim is substantial waste and abuse in the program, according to Politico.
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“Let’s be aggressive in modernizing our tools to reduce fraud, waste and abuse. This will stop unscrupulous people from stealing from vulnerable Americans and extend the life of the Medicare trust fund,” Oz said in his Senate hearing, notes The Hill.
Prior to his confirmation, Oz hosted a popular daytime television show from 2009 to 2022 and suffered a narrow defeat in 2024 for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat against Democrat John Fetterman.
Mary Margaret Olohan contributed to this report.
