Dr. Mehmet Oz refused to answer whether he would oppose cuts to Medicaid during his Senate confirmation hearing on Friday.
“Will you agree to oppose cuts in the Medicaid program?” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, pressed, “And I want a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”
Oz, a doctor and TV personality whom Trump has nominated to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), danced around the question.
“I cherish Medicaid, and I’ve worked within the Medicaid environment quite extensively, as I highlighted, practicing at Columbia University,” he said.
Wyden quickly interrupted: “That’s not that question, doctor. The question is, will you oppose cuts to this program you say you cherish?”
Oz remained vague. “I want to make sure that patients today and in the future have resources to protect them if they get ill,” Oz said, rambling on about making sure Medicaid is “viable at every level.
Wyden gave up and summed up the exchange: “Let the record show that I asked a witness who said he cherishes this program, ‘Will agree to oppose cuts?’ And he would not answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’”
Republicans in Congress have singled out the program, which serves 70 million low-income and disabled Americans, for deep cuts in order to extend Trump’s first-term tax cuts.
Last month, Trump said he “loves and cherishes” Medicaid and promised not to “do anything” with it unless there’s abuse or waste. Republicans in Congress have nonetheless pledged to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from the program, arguing it has grown beyond its core mission of providing health care to the poorest.
Oz’s hearing came just weeks after Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that, “Medicaid is not working for Americans” during his own hearing.
Oz, who ran unsuccessfully in 2022 to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate, drew fire for promoting dubious weight loss products and alternative therapies on his television program, The Dr. Oz Show.
