Dems hit Oz over Medicare 'privatization,' UnitedHealth stock

Democrats are getting a head start in their efforts to stymie President-elect Donald's Trump's choice to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"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," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and six other congressional Democrats wrote Dr. Mehmet Oz on Tuesday.

Related: CMS pick Dr. Oz touts Medicare Advantage, invests in healthcare

The dispatch offers a preview of the confirmation fight Oz faces after Trump formally nominates him next year.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (Ore.), Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Ben Cardin (Md.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.), and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (Texas), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee's health subcommittee, also signed the letter.

"We have questions about your lack of qualifications for this job: Although you were a renowned heart surgeon, you have no management experience relevant to running these critical healthcare programs," the lawmakers wrote. "We are equally concerned about your previous advocacy for Medicare privatization."

Warren, Wyden and Durbin are expected to remain on the Finance Committee, which is responsible for vetting CMS administrator nominees, when Republicans take control of the House and Senate with slim majorities next year.

"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," the Democrats wrote. "The consequences of failure on your part would be grave. Billions of federal health care dollars — and millions of lives — are at stake."

The Trump transition office did not respond to a request for comment and previously declined to answer questions about Oz's potential financial conflicts of interest.

Oz, a controversial television host who ran unsuccessfully for Senate as a Republican in 2022, has expressed strong support for Medicare Advantage and has extensive investments in healthcare companies that could be affected by CMS. Trump picked Oz for CMS administrator shortly after announcing he would nominate the even more controversial Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Democrats seize on positions Oz has articulated, including a 2020 Forbes article he authored with George Halvorson, former CEO of Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente, that promoted "Medicare Advantage for All."

Although Oz did not call for eliminating fee-for-service Medicare during his Senate campaign, he has consistently recommended Medicare Advantage on his TV program and social media platforms.

Additionally, Oz disclosed in 2022 that he had extensive healthcare holdings, including $550,000 in UnitedHealth Group stock and up to $50,000 in Aetna parent company CVS Health, Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare, drugmaker AbbVie and medical wholesaler McKesson, respectively. Oz also invested in healthcare startups, including $5 million-$25 million in the digital health company ShareCare.

Warren and her colleagues zero in on Oz's connection to UnitedHealth Group, the leading Medicare Advantage insurer by market share.

"Your advocacy for eliminating the traditional Medicare program and replacing it with Medicare Advantage also raises questions about your own financial conflicts of interest," the legislators wrote.

"The company is currently under a sprawling antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice — including for its role in aggressively upcoding Medicare Advantage enrollees to secure higher payments from CMS — and has been sued on multiple occasions for Medicare fraud. Under your plan, UnitedHealth’s revenue from Medicare Advantage would roughly double to $274 billion annually," the Democrats wrote.

The letter closes with a list of questions the lawmakers demand Oz answer by Dec. 24, starting with, "Do you still continue to view traditional Medicare as a 'highly dysfunctional' program" and "Do you still continue to support policies that would eliminate traditional Medicare?"

The lawmakers further ask that Oz commit to divesting his health insurance holdings and recusing himself from agency actions affecting insurers CMS regulates and pays.

"We will have additional questions as your nomination moves forward in the Finance Committee," Warren, Wyden, Durbin, Blumenthal, Cardin, Merkley and Dogget wrote.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) is expected to remain on the Finance Committee in 2025. Cardin is retiring and will not serve in Congress next year.