Americans Had Two Decades to Ditch Dr. Oz. Now He's in Charge.

Well, Donald Trump just nominated Dr. Oz to serve as the head of Medicare and Medicaid, a role that positions him to do maximum damage. He says, “there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to make America healthy again. He’s a world-class communicator.”

He’ll be working closely with RFK Jr.

To be clear, the man who made his fortune pumping miracle fat burners and age-defying supplements will now hold immanent power over the 72 million Americans on Medicaid, including low-income families and the disabled, on top of 67 million senior citizens. That’s roughly half the country. He’ll decide who’s eligible and what care they can receive. Our future now lies in the hands of a snake oil salesman and an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist who thinks HIV doesn’t cause AIDs but does think antidepressants (not guns) cause mass shootings.

In my last post, I referenced an op-ed from twenty years ago that shuddered at the thought of a government based on the law of attraction.

We have arrived at our destination.

Among other things, Dr. Oz supports “privatized medicare.” Essentially, he wants to implement a 20 percent payroll tax to subsidize private insurance plans for senior citizens. From there, you can intuit that he wants to do something similar with Medicaid, either partially or fully privatizing it at the expense of taxpayers. If he can’t privatize the latter, you can count on him passing policies that boot millions off their coverage. After all, why should someone need healthcare when they could just exercise more and nibble on some goji berries?

We wanted healthcare for all, not private insurance for all.

There’s a difference.

Most Americans know Dr. Oz for his friendly appearances on morning talk shows. In my world, Dr. Oz is famous for recommending schools reopen in 2020 "because it “may only cost us 2-3 percent in terms of total mortality,” and those deaths “might be a tradeoff some folks would consider” for the sake of getting “every child back into a school where they’re safely being educated… and making the most out of their lives.” As CBS news quickly pointed out, that 2-3 percent would translate into roughly 10 million deaths, many of them children.

So, that’s the real Dr. Oz.

Child sacrifice.

Oz sells healthcare the same way he’s spent his entire career selling “miracle cures” that don’t actually work. He talks about expanding access and coverage, when his true interest lies in expanding profits.

The mainstream media is running the same sane-washing story, “What to Know About Dr. Oz.” But they’re not saying much.

Here’s what I know about him.