{"id":1050350,"date":"2024-12-10T13:32:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1050350"},"modified":"2024-12-10T13:32:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:32:49","slug":"icymi-democrats-demand-answers-from-trump-pick-mehmet-oz-on-medicare-privatization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-democrats-demand-answers-from-trump-pick-mehmet-oz-on-medicare-privatization\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: Democrats demand answers from Trump pick Mehmet Oz on \u2018Medicare privatization\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1038290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png 1500w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=300,100 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=768,256 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/image.png?resize=1024,341 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Point:<\/strong> \u201cKey Democratic senators are demanding answers from Mehmet Oz on his \u2018previous advocacy for Medicare privatization,\u2019 referring to his call in 2020 for putting all seniors into private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage. \u2026 \u2018Your advocacy for eliminating the Traditional Medicare program and replacing it with Medicare Advantage also raises questions about your own financial conflicts of interest,\u2019 the Democrats wrote in the letter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/democrats-demand-answers-trump-pick-mehmet-oz-medicare-privatization-rcna183514\"><strong>NBC News<\/strong><\/a><strong>: Democrats demand answers from Trump pick Mehmet Oz on \u2018Medicare privatization\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By: Sahil Kapur&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Key Democratic senators are demanding answers from Mehmet Oz on his \u201cprevious advocacy for Medicare privatization,\u201d referring to his call in 2020 for putting all seniors into private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Democrats referred to a <strong>2020 opinion piece that Oz co-wrote calling for putting all Americans into Medicare Advantage, effectively replacing the traditional Medicare program <\/strong>in which the government directly insures Americans 65 and older in tandem with private insurance plans.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cYour <strong>advocacy for eliminating the Traditional Medicare program and replacing it with Medicare Advantage also raises questions about your own financial conflicts of interest,<\/strong>\u201d the Democrats wrote in the letter. \u201cIn your financial disclosures from your 2022 Senate run,<strong> [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.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThe <strong>company is currently under a sprawling antitrust investigation<\/strong> by the Department of Justice \u2014 including <strong>for its role in aggressively upcoding Medicare Advantage enrollees to secure higher payments<\/strong> from CMS \u2014 and has been sued on multiple occasions for Medicare fraud. Under your plan, UnitedHealth\u2019s revenue from Medicare Advantage would roughly double to $274 billion annually.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Democratic lawmakers asked Oz a series of questions, including whether he&#8217;ll \u201ccontinue to support policies that would eliminate Traditional Medicare\u201d if confirmed to lead CMS and whether he&#8217;ll \u201ccommit to opposing any and all efforts to privatize or cut Medicare.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They also asked if he\u2019ll \u201ccommit to fully divesting of any and all financial holdings related to the insurance industry if you are confirmed as Administrator.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Point: \u201cKey Democratic senators are demanding answers from Mehmet Oz on his \u2018previous advocacy for Medicare privatization,\u2019 referring to his call in 2020 for putting all seniors into private insurance plans under Medicare Advantage. \u2026 \u2018Your advocacy for eliminating the Traditional Medicare program and replacing it with Medicare Advantage also raises questions about your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1050350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - 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