Key Point: “Key Democratic senators are demanding answers from Mehmet Oz on his ‘previous advocacy for Medicare privatization,’ referring to his call in 2020 for putting all seniors into private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage. … ‘Your advocacy for eliminating the Traditional Medicare program and replacing it with Medicare Advantage also raises questions about your own financial conflicts of interest,’ the Democrats wrote in the letter.”

NBC News: Democrats demand answers from Trump pick Mehmet Oz on ‘Medicare privatization’

By: Sahil Kapur 

• Key Democratic senators are demanding answers from Mehmet Oz on his “previous advocacy for Medicare privatization,” referring to his call in 2020 for putting all seniors into private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage.
• The Democrats referred to a 2020 opinion piece that Oz co-wrote calling for putting all Americans into Medicare Advantage, effectively replacing the traditional Medicare program in which the government directly insures Americans 65 and older in tandem with private insurance plans.
• “Your advocacy for eliminating the Traditional Medicare program and replacing it with Medicare Advantage also raises questions about your own financial conflicts of interest,” the Democrats wrote in the letter. “In your financial disclosures from your 2022 Senate run, [Oz] reported owning over $550,000 of stock in UnitedHealth, the largest private insurer in Medicare Advantage and largest employer of physicians in the nation.”
• “The company is currently under a sprawling antitrust investigation by the Department of Justice — including for its role in aggressively upcoding Medicare Advantage enrollees to secure higher payments from CMS — and has been sued on multiple occasions for Medicare fraud. Under your plan, UnitedHealth’s revenue from Medicare Advantage would roughly double to $274 billion annually.”
• The Democratic lawmakers asked Oz a series of questions, including whether he’ll “continue to support policies that would eliminate Traditional Medicare” if confirmed to lead CMS and whether he’ll “commit to opposing any and all efforts to privatize or cut Medicare.”
• They also asked if he’ll “commit to fully divesting of any and all financial holdings related to the insurance industry if you are confirmed as Administrator.”