Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former heart surgeon who rose to prominence dispensing dubious medical advice on TV, is expected to appear before the Senate’s Committee on Finance this month for hearings on his nomination to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Donald Trump.
CMS oversees Medicare coverage for some 65 million Americans, and provides support for an additional 79 million covered by state-administered Medicaid and CHIP programs. It’s a massive portfolio — and one that wields enormous influence over access to birth control and reproductive health care for a broad swath of American women.
CMS is also the enforcement agency charged with investigating violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA — the law the requires all Medicare-participating hospitals to treat any patients who arrive at their door in need of stabilizing medical care. The law, passed during the Reagan administration, became a flashpoint after Roe v. Wade was struck down, as the Biden administration reminded hospitals in abortion-banning states that they were obligated under EMTALA to provide emergency abortion care as well. (The Supreme Court took the issue up last year — but ultimately punted on it, leaving the question unresolved for now.)
All of that is why Trump’s selection of Oz — who has called abortion “murder,” asserted that life begins at conception, and said that reproductive decisions should be between “women, doctors, [and] local political leaders” — to lead the agency has caused alarm for some, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who sits on the Senate committee that will hold his hearings.
Warren held a private meeting with Oz on Wednesday afternoon. The same day, she dispatched a formal letter to the doctor outlining her specific concerns and asking for a set of commitments before she could consider supporting his candidacy to lead the agency. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also signed the letter. Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time
Among the senators’ questions are whether Oz would implement recommendations from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s policy blueprint for Trump’s second term, including directives to limit EMTALA’s protections, including by “withdrawing the Biden Administration’s July 2022 guidance on EMTALA’s preemption of state-level abortion bans, ending investigations into alleged EMTALA violations, and eliminating existing injunctions and withdrawing or settling existing lawsuits under EMTALA.”
The senators also question whether Oz would withdraw Biden-era guidance encouraging states to apply for Medicaid funding earmarked to expand access to reproductive health care, and whether he would, as Project 2025 recommends, exclude Planned Parenthood from state Medicaid funds.
“Your record is alarming, and it is important that Congress and the public understand how you would use CMS authorities to impact reproductive care access if confirmed to serve as CMS Administrator,” Warren and Duckworth wrote, requesting Oz’s answers in writing by February 19. A date for Oz’s confirmation hearings has not yet been scheduled.
Read the senators’ full letter to Oz.
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