US President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had chosen celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz to serve as administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Oz, known as “Dr Oz”, unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate in 2022. Trump, who endorsed Oz in that race, said he would work closely with Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has been nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump said the pair would take on “the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake” as well as cutting what he called waste and fraud.
“Our broken Healthcare System harms everyday Americans, and crushes our Country’s budget,” Trump said in a statement.
The agency runs Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older and the disabled. The office also oversees Medicaid, the state-based health insurance program for low-income people, which is jointly funded by states and the federal government. Collectively, they provide health insurance for over 140 million Americans.
Trump promised during his campaign not to cut Medicare but is expected to let federal subsidies for Medicaid expire at the end of 2025.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also handles enrollment in health insurance marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Trump and other Republicans have previously tried to repeal the law but now say they only seek to overhaul it.