President-elect Donald Trump's choice to run the sprawling government agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace — celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz — may have significant conflicts of interest.
Oz recently held investments, some shared with family, in health care, pharmaceutical firms and tech companies with business in the health care sector, such as Amazon. Collectively, Oz's holdings totalled tens of millions of dollars, according to financial disclosures he filed during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. This includes a stake in UnitedHealth Group worth as much as $600,000.
Trump said Tuesday he would nominate Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency's scope is huge: CMS oversees coverage for more than 155 million Americans, nearly half the population. Medicare alone accounts for approximately $1 trillion in annual spending, with over 67 million enrollees.
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