Dr. Mehmet Oz confirmed to direct Medicare and Medicaid

The famous doctor and former television host Mehmet Oz was confirmed by the American Senate to lead the agency that oversees the health care of millions of Americans.

Oz, who has never occupied a public service, was chosen last year by President Donald Trump to direct the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

On Thursday, this role was confirmed by the US Senate under the Republican control by an online party vote of 53-45.

The 64 -year -old man, whose approaches were examined, formed as a surgeon before finding the renown of the Oprah Winfrey show in the early 2000s.

Health experts previously criticized the promotion by OZ of what they consider a bad health advice drug And “miracle cures”, and to suggest that malaria drugs could be used as a remedy for COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic.

After choosing Oz to lead CMSSaid Trump in a statement there “may not be a more qualified and capable doctor … to make America again healthy”.

Before its inauguration, Trump’s transitional team said Oz would “work” with American secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to “face the industrial disease of the disease”.

The CMS oversees the country’s largest health programs, offering coverage at around half of Americans.

It regulates health insurance and establishes a police that guide the prices that doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are paid for medical services.

In 2023, the US government spent more than 1.4 TN (1.1 tn £) for combined medicaids and drugs, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Oz also welcomed Dr. Oz Show, in which he offered health advice to viewers, from 2009 to 2022.

But it was examined for recommending homeopathy, alternative medicine and other treatments that criticism called “pseudoscience”.

Democrats previously said that an examination of its financial files suggests that Oz may not have paid $ 403,739 in Medicare taxes on more than $ 10 million in revenues from its media company between 2021 and 2023.

However, an Oz spokesman said that an examination of the government’s ethics office revealed that he had respected the law.