JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President-elect Trump continues to announce his choices to join his new administration. Today, we learned his pick for Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, a billionaire investor and veteran Wall Street CEO. And we learned that he will nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz, known for "The Dr. Oz Show" on daytime TV, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. NPR health policy correspondent Selena Simmons-Duffin is here to tell us more. Hi.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Selena, most people probably have heard of Dr. Oz, possibly even seen him on TV, but tell us - what's his professional background?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Well, he has a medical degree. He's a cardiothoracic surgeon. He also has a business degree from UPenn's Wharton School, like President-elect Trump. These are some impressive academic credentials, but Oz has built his fame and fortune by promoting alternative therapies like unproven diet products, cleanses, detoxes. He first became famous as a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." That led to a radio show and a daytime TV show, "The Dr. Oz Show," like you mentioned. That ended in 2022 when Oz ran as the Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania. He narrowly lost to John Fetterman in that race. If he's confirmed by the Senate, he'll be overseeing an enormous health agency that spends about $1.5 trillion a year. That is more than the Department of Defense.
SUMMERS: And we're, of course, talking about the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Selena, tell us what's involved with running that huge agency.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, about 6,500 people work there, and the administrator has responsibility for several huge programs. The first is Medicare. That acts as an insurance provider to everyone in the country older than 65. It is an enormous operation. Then there's Medicaid. That's a health insurance program for low-income people that is run in partnership with states, and that covers nearly 80 million people. CMS gets to decide how states can manage their Medicaid programs. So do they help with social determines of health? Do they require beneficiaries to look for work? The work requirements was something that was allowed in Arkansas during the previous Trump presidency until it was struck down in the courts. CMS also houses healthcare.gov. That's the place where people can go to buy insurance if they can't get it through their jobs. And Trump worked to undermine these Obamacare plans in the - in his first term. Under Biden, enrollment has nearly doubled, and it's now around 21 million people.
SUMMERS: Now, Selena, I know that Dr. Oz was criticized for promoting dubious medical and wellness products on his show. What can you tell us about that?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, that's right. As far back as 2015, a number of Dr. Oz's fellow doctors at Columbia University sent an open letter to the school asking it to rescind his faculty position. He promoted things like green coffee bean extract for weight loss and other ideas with little or no scientific evidence backing them up. He was even called in to testify in Congress about his promotion of miracle products, and he faced a class action lawsuit about these claims, although the suit was later dismissed. He was also a frequent critic of public health measures during the height of the COVID pandemic and promoted unproven treatments for COVID as well.
SUMMERS: Now, in his announcement, President-elect Trump said that Oz would take on the, quote, "illness industrial complex," along with another one of his picks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. What do you make of that?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah, this is the idea that Big Food and Big Pharma are deliberately keeping Americans unhealthy for profit. Now, if these are - people are both confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. So he would be Oz's boss, and these men have known each other for a long time. Kennedy and other vaccine denialists were guests on "The Dr. Oz Show." Now both men say they want to focus on healthy foods and keeping people well, which is of course a laudable goal, but so far, we haven't really heard many specifics on how they would accomplish it.
SUMMERS: NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin, thank you so much.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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