FILE PHOTO: Republican US Senatorial candidate for Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, gestures as he speaks during a campaign rally in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, on November 2, 2022. – President-elect Donald Trump, on November 19, 2024, announced the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. Mehmet Oz, a former surgeon and TV celebrity known as “Dr. Oz.” (Photo by Ryan Collerd / Agence France-Presse)

WASHINGTON, United States — Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he was appointing Mehmet Oz, a former surgeon and TV celebrity known as “Dr. Oz,” to lead the United States’ massive public health insurance program.

The 64-year-old heart surgeon was championed on daytime television by Oprah Winfrey before he entered politics with an unsuccessful bid for a Senate seat in 2022.

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Oz is the latest of Trump’s eye-catching nominations to key positions, including Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be defense secretary, vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, and billionaire Elon Musk to head a government cost-cutting unit.

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“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” the president-elect posted on his Truth Social platform.

READ: Oz, Fetterman face off on inflation, crime in Pennsylvania Senate debate

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The appointment puts a man whose health recommendations – especially on Covid and weight loss – have often been ridiculed by the medical community at the helm of the United States’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

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As CMS administrator, Oz will be in charge of a federal agency that provides health coverage to more than 160 million Americans – almost half the country’s population.

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It employs about 6,700 people, had outlays of $1.48 trillion last year, and is one the largest purchasers of healthcare services in the world.

A son of Turkish immigrants, Oz has never held public office before, but has been a steadfast ally of Trump, who backed him in his unsuccessful Senate run in Pennsylvania.

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