JustCare

Tag: Mehmet Oz

  • Is Mehmet Oz fit to run Medicare agency?

    Is Mehmet Oz fit to run Medicare agency?

    Last month, Senator Elizabeth Warren, along with six other Democratic Senators, sent a letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, whom President-elect Donald Trump has named as Administrator-Designate, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), regarding Dr. Oz’s call for the elimination of traditional Medicare and his lack of qualifications for the CMS Administrator position. If Dr. Oz becomes head of CMS will we be playing with fire?

    Dr. Oz has substantial investments in corporate health insurance companies. He has said that he wants everyone with Medicare in a Medicare Advantage plan, even though Medicare Advantage does not work for large swaths of the population. (People in rural communities who are in Medicare Advantage plans often must travel tens of miles to receive hospital care because their Medicare Advantage plans won’t pay their local hospitals appropriately. People with cancer in Medicare Advantage plans can’t see physicians at cancers centers of excellence because they are all out of network. People who travel and need care in multiple parts of the US can’t get the in-network coverage they need in Medicare Advantage. Amputees and other people needing rehab services too often can only get that care covered if they are in traditional Medicare.)

    Dr. Oz also either does not appear to appreciate or does not care that traditional Medicare is far more cost effective than Medicare Advantage. He either does not know or does not care that Medicare is overpaying corporate health insurers operating Medicare Advantage plans tens of billions of dollars each year.

    MedPAC projects that these insurers will overcharge CMS $83 billion relative to traditional Medicare in 2024 alone. To maximize profits, private insurers make their MA enrollees appear sicker than they actually are. The HHS Office of the Inspector General finds that insurers engage in constant inappropriate delays and denials of needed care and force physicians and hospitals to jump through hoops to deliver needed care. Dr. Oz does not seem to know about or ignores these abuses.

    Dr. Oz also has a financial conflict of interest. He owns more than $550,000 of stock in UnitedHealth, which is under Justice Department investigation for antitrust abuses. But, his desire to eliminate traditional Medicare would double revenue for UnitedHealth to nearly $300 billion.

    Senators Warren, Wyden, Cardin, Merkley, Durbin and Blumenthal ask Dr. Oz for answers to a series of questions by December 23, 2024:

    1. Does he continue to believe traditional Medicare should be eliminated and, if so, why?
    2. Will he commit to protecting Medicare, not privatizing it or cutting benefits?
    3. Does he understand why Medicare Advantage is highly dysfunctional and, if not, what does he think about the upcoding and widespread delays and denials of needed care?
    4. Will he sell off all investments in health insurance companies in order to ensure he has no financial conflicts of interest if he is confirmed as CMS Administrator?

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • What will Dr. Oz do as head of Medicare agency?

    What will Dr. Oz do as head of Medicare agency?

    President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Mehmet Oz to be the next head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid, reports the New York Times. The choice of Dr. Oz, a TV celebrity with no government or management experience is in keeping with Trump’s other picks for big government roles. The open question is what will Dr. Oz do as head of CMS?

    If the past is any indicator, Dr. Oz will put in place plans to eliminate the public traditional Medicare program. It would be a huge mistake and arguably not doable, given that Medicare Advantage doesn’t work for some people in some parts of the country and works poorly for people with serious conditions and people with low incomes in many parts of the country. Wealthy Americans who understand the health risks of a Medicare Advantage plan avoid it at all costs.

    Traditional Medicare covers your care from virtually any physician or hospital in the country, without delay or forcing you to go through prior authorization hoops. When you need costly care, as most of us will at some point, Medicare protects you and ensures you are able to get the care you need. Medicare Advantage, in sharp contrast, works well when you’re healthy and tends to delay and deny care inappropriately when you most need care. So, people in Medicare Advantage take a huge risk.

    Back when he ran against John Fetterman for a US Senate seat in 2022, Oz made clear that, unlike his opponent, he does not support “free health care for everyone.”  Oz advocates for Medicare Advantage for All, a health care system that gives full control over our healthcare to big private insurers and will ration care based on ability to pay.

    Oz has suggested a 20 percent payroll tax to cover the costs of his Medicare Advantage for All plan. It would be a huge windfall for the biggest corporate health insurers. It would also be a huge windfall for Oz, as he and his wife are reported to have millions of dollars invested in the health care industry.

    Senator Patty Murray of Washington State expressed deep concern about Dr. Oz’s nomination: “Even putting aside the raft of alarming pseudoscience Dr. Oz has previously endorsed, it is deeply disappointing to see someone with zero qualifications being announced to head up such a critical agency.”

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