Durbin, Colleagues Call Out Dr. Oz For Proposal To End Traditional Medicare And Glaring Conflicts Of Interest

Durbin, Colleagues Call Out Dr. Oz For Proposal To End Traditional Medicare And Glaring Conflicts Of Interest

Given your financial ties to private insurers, combines with your view that the traditional Medicare program is 'highly dysfunctional' and your advocacy for eliminating it entirely, it is not clear that you are qualified for this critical job," the Senators wrote

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) today joined U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX-37) in sending a letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), raising stark concerns about his advocacy to eliminate the traditional Medicare program and his deep financial ties to the private health insurance corporations that would benefit from that move.

In June 2020, ahead of his campaign for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Dr. Oz outlined his vision for the Medicare program, in which he advocated to eliminate the traditional Medicare program and instead lean on private insurance corporations that run Medicare Advantage, a private health care program that drastically overcharges for care and can put unnecessary barriers between patients and their treatments. Non-partisan estimates project that these insurers overcharged taxpayers $88 billion in 2024 alone, especially through the practice of "upcoding," in which private insurers exaggerate the health conditions of their enrollees on paper to secure higher payments from CMS - even if enrollees receive no treatment for those conditions.

Notably, Dr. Oz has at least $550,000 invested in UnitedHealth Group, the largest private insurer in Medicare Advantage. Under Dr. Oz's plan, UnitedHealth Group's revenue from Medicare Advantage would roughly double to $274 billion annually - a glaring conflict of interest.

"As CMS Administrator, you would be tasked with overseeing Medicare and ensuring that the tens of millions of seniors that rely on the program receive the care they deserve, including cracking down on abuses by private insurers in Medicare Advantage," wrote the lawmakers. "The consequences of failure on your part would be grave. Billions of federal health care dollars - and millions of lives - are at stake."

"Given your financial ties to private insurers, combined with your view that the traditional Medicare program is 'highly dysfunctional' and your advocacy for eliminating it entirely, it is not clear that you are qualified for this critical job," concluded the lawmakers.

A copy of the letter is available here.

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