• 3 days ago
At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) spoke about the nomination of Dr. Oz to run CMS.

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Transcript
00:00I now recognize Ranking Member Wyden for his remarks.
00:03Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
00:06Later today, we're going to vote on the Oz nomination.
00:09I'm just going to spend a few minutes describing why I can't support the nomination.
00:16During his confirmation hearing, Dr. Oz was given the chance to assure the American people
00:21that he would not be a rubber stamp for Republican plans to gut Medicaid and hike Affordable
00:28Care Act premiums.
00:30At every turn, he failed the test.
00:33When I asked him a yes or no question about whether he would protect Medicaid, he dodged,
00:39he weaved, he simply wouldn't answer.
00:42That's a stark contrast to what I heard at town hall meetings opened all in Oregon the
00:46past week.
00:47In Oregon City, I was joined by Patty and Katina, a mom and a daughter who count on
00:52Medicaid to help with Katina's medical expenses.
00:56Because of Medicaid, Katina can thrive in the community as an Oregonian who lives with
01:02Down syndrome.
01:04There are countless other families in Oregon and across the country who are terrified of
01:09these cuts.
01:10Dr. Oz also ducked a number of my other questions.
01:15When pressed on whether nurses belong in nursing homes, he replied, that was a complicated
01:23question.
01:24I just found that a jaw dropper.
01:27It isn't complicated for the rest of us whether nursing homes ought to have adequate staff
01:32to take your mom to the bathroom or give your grandpa meals.
01:37I told Dr. Oz it was pretty simple.
01:41Not only did the nominee dodge and weave during questioning at his confirmation hearing, he
01:45also failed to provide factual responses to our written questions submitted after the
01:49hearing.
01:50This lack of responsiveness to Congress ought to be unacceptable to every member of our
01:55committee.
01:56But the Republican majority once again seems eager to disregard their own congressional
01:59oversight responsibilities when Donald Trump calls the shots.
02:04I'll once again state that Dr. Oz is the second Trump nominee to come before this committee
02:09with a record of dodging Medicare and Social Security taxes.
02:15Nurses and firefighters across America pay taxes with every single hard-earned paycheck.
02:21But the multimillionaire nominated to run Medicare can't be bothered to do the same
02:26thing.
02:45Chairman, this is a continuation of our efforts to spotlight health care middlemen that in
02:53my view are leeching off the health care system at the expense of taxpayers and seniors.
02:59Our investigation found that too many for-profit insurance companies are spending billions
03:04of taxpayer dollars on marketing middlemen to drown seniors in calls and mailers.
03:11These tactics are designed to pressure them into enrolling in private health plans that
03:14might not even cover their preferred doctor or medicines or that may put up unexpected
03:21roadblocks to getting the care they need.
03:23Insurance companies and these marketing middlemen have orchestrated a complex and complicated
03:28system to line the pockets of shareholders by raising costs for seniors and taxpayers
03:33and invading oversight and accountability.
03:37Given Dr. Oz's history of basically acting as a salesman for Medicare Advantage, putting
03:41him in charge of regulating these middlemen is almost like letting the fox guard the proverbial
03:47henhouse.
03:48The bottom line is that American tax dollars are in too many instances being used by profit
03:54insurance companies for shady marketing practices that take advantage of older people.
04:00For-profit insurance companies spend five times more on marketing and administrative
04:04expenses than traditional Medicare, which is of course run by the government.
04:08If Elon Musk and his cronies at Doge actually cared about targeting waste and fraud, they'd
04:13be focused on waste and Medicare Advantage rather than targeting Americans' hard-earned
04:18Social Security.
04:20We've successfully fought for more consumer protections against predatory M.A. marketing
04:25and I asked Dr. Oz to pledge not to roll those protections back.
04:30He may be open to our concerns on that and if he's confirmed, I'm going to hold him to
04:35that and watchdog this issue spotlighting abuses.
04:38The bottom line, colleagues, is that this is an ability to a nominee who has shown no
04:44ability to or interest in pushing back on the dangerous Trump health care agenda.
04:49I urge my colleagues to vote no.

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