Dr. Mehmet Oz ran for Pennsylvania Senate in 2022 as a Republican and misplaced to Democrat John Fetterman. In line with monetary disclosures he filed on the time, he had vital investments in well being care, pharmaceutical companies and tech firms with ties to well being care.
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Win McNamee/Getty Pictures
President-elect Donald Trump’s option to run the sprawling authorities company that administers Medicare, Medicaid, and the Inexpensive Care Act market — movie star physician Mehmet Oz — could have vital conflicts of curiosity.
Oz not too long ago held investments, some shared with household, in well being care, pharmaceutical companies and tech firms with enterprise within the well being care sector, reminiscent of Amazon. Collectively, Oz’s holdings totalled tens of tens of millions of {dollars}, based on monetary disclosures he filed throughout his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. This features a stake in UnitedHealth Group price as a lot as $600,000.
Trump mentioned Tuesday he would nominate Oz as administrator of the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers. The company’s scope is big: CMS oversees protection for greater than 155 million Individuals, almost half the inhabitants. Medicare alone accounts for about $1 trillion in annual spending, with over 67 million enrollees.
UnitedHealth Group is among the largest well being care firms within the nation and arguably a very powerful enterprise companion of CMS, by which it’s the main supplier of business well being plans out there to Medicare beneficiaries.
UnitedHealth additionally presents managed-care plans below Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for low-income folks, and sells plans on government-run marketplaces arrange by way of the Inexpensive Care Act. Oz additionally had smaller stakes in CVS Well being, which now consists of the insurer Aetna, and the insurer Cigna.
It is not clear if Oz, a coronary heart surgeon by coaching, nonetheless holds investments in well being care firms, or if he would divest his shares or in any other case search to mitigate conflicts of curiosity ought to he be confirmed by the Senate. Reached by cellphone on Wednesday, he mentioned he was in a Zoom assembly and declined to remark. An assistant didn’t reply to an electronic mail message with detailed questions.
“It is apparent that over time he is cultivated an curiosity within the pharmaceutical trade and the insurance coverage trade,” mentioned Peter Lurie, president of the Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity, a watchdog group. “That raises a query of whether or not he may be trusted to behave on behalf of the American folks.” (The writer of KFF Well being Information, David Rousseau, is on the CSPI board.)
A variety of investments
Oz used his TikTok web page on a number of events in November to reward Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., together with their efforts to tackle the “illness-industrial advanced,” and he slammed “so-called specialists like the large medical societies” for allotting what he known as dangerous dietary recommendation. Oz’s positions on well being coverage have been chameleonic; in 2010, he minimize an advert urging Californians to enroll in insurance coverage below President Barack Obama’s Inexpensive Care Act, telling viewers that they had a “historic alternative.”
Oz’s 2022 monetary disclosures present that the tv star invested a considerable a part of his wealth in well being care and meals companies. Have been he confirmed to run CMS, his job would contain interacting with giants of the trade which have contributed to his wealth.
Given the breadth of his investments, it will be tough for Oz to recuse himself from issues affecting his property, if he nonetheless holds them. “He may spend his time in a rocking chair” if that occurred, Lurie mentioned.
Previously, nominees for presidency positions with related potential conflicts of curiosity have chosen to promote the property or in any other case divest themselves. As an illustration, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland agreed to divest their holdings in related, publicly traded firms after they joined the Biden administration.
Trump, nevertheless, declined in his first time period to relinquish management of his personal firms and different property whereas in workplace, and he is not anticipated to take action in his second time period. He has not publicly indicated concern about his subordinates’ monetary holdings.
A choice for Medicare Benefit?
CMS’ most important job is to manage Medicare. About half of recent enrollees now select Medicare Benefit, wherein industrial insurers present their well being protection, as a substitute of the standard, government-run program, based on an evaluation from KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information.
Proponents of Medicare Benefit say the non-public plans supply extra compelling companies than the federal government and higher handle the prices of care. Critics observe that Medicare Benefit plans have an extended historical past of costing taxpayers extra than the standard program.
UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna are all substantial gamers within the Medicare Benefit market. It is not all the time relationship with the federal government. The Division of Justice filed a 2017 grievance in opposition to UnitedHealth alleging the corporate used false info to inflate prices to the federal government. The case is ongoing.
Oz is an enthusiastic proponent of Medicare Benefit. In 2020, he proposed providing Medicare Benefit to all; throughout his Senate run, he provided a extra basic pledge to increase these plans. After Trump introduced Oz’s nomination for CMS, Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow on the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, mentioned he was “unsure about Dr. Oz’s familiarity with well being care financing and economics.”
Singer mentioned Oz’s Medicare Benefit proposal may require giant new taxes — maybe a 20% payroll tax — to implement.
Oz has gotten a combined reception from elsewhere in Washington. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, the Democrat who defeated Oz in 2022, signaled he’d doubtlessly help his appointment to CMS. “If Dr. Oz is about defending and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I am voting for the dude,” he mentioned on the social platform X.
Pharma and biotech
Oz’s investments in firms doing enterprise with the federal authorities do not finish with massive insurers. He and his household additionally maintain hospital shares, based on his 2022 disclosure, in addition to a stake in Amazon price as a lot as almost $2.4 million. (Candidates for federal workplace are required to reveal a broad vary of values for his or her holdings, not a selected determine.)
Amazon operates an web pharmacy, and the corporate introduced in June that its subscription service is accessible to Medicare enrollees. It additionally owns a main care service, One Medical, that accepts Medicare and “choose” Medicare Benefit plans.
Oz was additionally instantly invested in a number of giant pharmaceutical firms and, by investments in enterprise capital funds, not directly invested in different biotech and vaccine companies. Massive Pharma has been a frequent goal of criticism and typically conspiracy theories from Trump and his allies. Kennedy, whom Trump has mentioned he’ll nominate to be Well being and Human Providers secretary, is a longtime anti-vaccine activist.
In the course of the Biden administration, Congress gave Medicare authority to barter with drug firms over their costs. CMS initially chosen 10 medication. These medication collectively accounted for $50.5 billion in spending between June 1, 2022, and Might 31, 2023, below Medicare’s Half D prescription drug profit.
At the very least 4 of these 10 drugs are manufactured by firms wherein Oz held inventory, price as a lot as about $50,000.
Oz could acquire or lose financially from different Trump administration proposals.
For instance, as of 2022, Oz held investments price as a lot as $6 million in fertility therapy suppliers. To counter fears that politicians who oppose abortion would ban in vitro fertilization, Trump floated throughout his marketing campaign making in vitro fertilization therapy free. It is unclear whether or not the federal government would pay for the companies.
In his TikTok movies from earlier in November, Oz echoed assaults on the meals trade by Kennedy and different figures in his “Make America Wholesome Once more” motion. They blame processed meals and underregulation of the trade for the poor well being of many Individuals, considerations shared by many Democrats and extra mainstream specialists.
However in 2022, Oz owned stakes price as a lot as $80,000 in Domino’s Pizza, Pepsi, and US Meals, in addition to extra substantial investments in different components of the meals chain, together with cattle; Oz reported investments price as a lot as $5.5 million in a farm and livestock, in addition to a stake in a dairy-free milk startup. He was additionally not directly invested within the restaurant chain Epic Burger.
Considered one of his largest investments was within the Pennsylvania-based comfort retailer chain Wawa, which sells quick meals and all method of ultra-processed snacks. Oz and his spouse reported a stake within the firm, beloved by many Pennsylvanians, price as a lot as $30 million.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is among the core working packages at KFF.