Mehmet Oz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, once said the uninsured “don’t have a right to health,” only the “right to access a chance to get that health.”
The physician, better known as the TV celebrity Dr. Oz, made the comment during a 2013 address to the National Governor’s Association. He told attendees that uninsured people should be given “a way of crawling back out of the abyss of darkness, of fear, over not having the health they need” in a “festival-like setting” with physicians.
“You can screen thousands of people for almost nothing, and can you allow a conversation to take place in more of a festival-like setting,” Oz said. “It is not scary … a lot don’t have insurance. Give them a way of crawling back out of the abyss of darkness of fear over not having the health they need and give them an opportunity.
“Because they don’t have the right to health, but they have the right to access a chance to get that health,” he added.
If confirmed by the US Senate next year, Oz will lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which insures more than 160 million people. Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people 65 years old and over, while Medicaid is a joint federal and state program for people on low income.
Oz has a history of peddling baseless medical claims, including falsely claiming the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19.
Not only is the drug ineffective against the virus, but it can also actively harm patients who take it to combat COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.
Oz is just one of many TV personalities to be a part of Trump’s potential cabinet. Other picks include former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who was tapped to lead the Department of Defense, and Fox News contributor Sean Duffy, who was nominated to head the Department of Transportation.
In his nomination announcement, Trump vowed Oz will “cut waste and fraud” within the agency.
“Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget. 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 said in his statement.
Given Trump is unlikely to cut defense, Medicare or Social Security spending, Medicaid could be under threat during his next term, experts warn.
“That means almost half of federal spending would be protected from cuts, leaving Medicaid, which is the next largest source of federal spending, and the ACA as prime targets for spending cuts. The math is inescapable,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, wrote earlier this month for the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Independent has contacted Trump’s transition team for comment.
