By Josh Nathan-Kazis

Senate Democrats warned against potential Medicaid cuts as they questioned President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Medicare and Medicaid programs during a hearing on Friday.

The confirmation hearing for Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former television host, comes amid a brewing fight over major cuts to Medicaid, which provides insurance for low-income Americans. A Republican budget plan that passed the House of Representatives in February demands $880 billion in cuts over the next decade from the committee responsible for Medicaid.

The lead Democrat on the Senate's finance committee, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, asked Oz on Friday if he would oppose Medicaid cuts: "What I want to know, yes or no, if you cherish Medicaid, will you agree to oppose cuts to the Medicaid program?"

"The way you protect Medicaid is by making sure it is viable on every level," Oz responded.

Wyden opened the hearing by accusing Oz of avoiding Social Security and Medicare taxes. Oz has said he followed the law.

Wyden also sought to portray Oz as an opponent of traditional Medicare, under which the government pays seniors' medical costs directly, and a promoter of Medicare Advantage, through which the federal government pays private firms to insure seniors. As a television host, Oz took payment to promote Medicare Advantage plans, according to a New York Times report.

More than one Senator also pressed for new restrictions on pharmacy-benefit managers, the middlemen owned by UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health, and Cigna that negotiate with drugmakers and pharmacies.

"I've been working to hold pharmacy-benefit managers accountable to lower prescription drug costs," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican. "I expect you to work with us to hold these powerful drug middlemen accountable."

The hearing came a day after a rare admission of political weakness by the Trump administration, when the White House yanked Trump's nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just hours before a scheduled Senate hearing on his nomination.

Weldon, a former Republican congressman with a history of vaccine skepticism, told media outlets the White House had told him his nomination was being pulled because there weren't enough votes to get him confirmed.

That decision points to potential unrest among Senate Republicans, some of whom had voiced concern about the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading vaccine skeptic, as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. All but one Republican Senator eventually voted in favor of Kennedy's confirmation, after Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, announced that Kennedy had made him a list of concessions on vaccine policy.

Since Kennedy arrived at HHS a month ago, there have been developments that appear to infringe on commitments Cassidy said Kennedy had made to him. As measles cases have spread across the U.S., killing up to two people, Kennedy has described vaccination as a personal choice, in contrast to longstanding guidance from CDC. Meanwhile, multiple outlets reported in early March that HHS had asked the CDC to study connections between vaccines and autism, though extensive research has shown no link.

Oz is best known as host of "The Dr. Oz Show," a daytime talk show that ran from 2009 through early 2022, when he entered politics to run for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican. He lost to Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat. Oz has both an MD and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Oz presented health cures on his program that were often not backed by evidence.

As administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Oz would hold what might be the most important job in the U.S. healthcare system. CMS has a hand in the care of nearly half of all Americans through the insurance programs it funds and operates, including Medicare, which pays for healthcare for older Americans, and Medicaid, which it jointly funds with state governments. CMS and the states also jointly fund the Children's Health Insurance Program, which insures children in low-income families.

CMS says that it provides health coverage to more than 160 million people, and its budget accounted for 22% of all federal spending in the 2024 fiscal year.

The job is highly technical, and involves complex work on the intricate details of America's wildly complex healthcare system.

"There's an unending amount of detailed Medicare policy problems and political problems and 50 states and six territories and very complicated Medicaid issues," Thomas Scully, who was CMS administrator from 2001 to 2004 under President George W. Bush, told Barron's in November . "It's a bottomless pit of healthcare fun," he said.

Former CMS administrators have come from a variety of backgrounds, though none were former television stars.

The administrator during President Joe Biden's term, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, was a longtime federal health official who had previously worked in senior policy jobs at CMS and Health and Human Services. Other recent CMS administrators had experience as executives in the healthcare industry, including Andy Slavitt, acting administrator during the Obama administration, who had previously been head of Optum, a large division within UnitedHealth Group.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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March 14, 2025 12:59 ET (16:59 GMT)

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