Journalist warns Trump’s Oz pick raises alarm about possible Medicare/Medicaid cuts

20 November 2024

On Tuesday, November 19, President-elect Donald Trump announced another pick for his incoming administration: television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump's choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Oz ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in the 2022 midterms, losing to Democratic now-Sen. John Fetterman.

Trump has claimed that Medicare cuts will not be on the table in his second administration. But some journalists, in response to the Oz pick and Trump's announcement, are voicing their concerns.

Trump, posting his announcement, said of Oz, "He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country's most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation's Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget."

On X, formerly Twitter, NBC News' Garrett Haake responded to that statement by posting, "Buried in Oz announcement is this line which suggests cuts to Medicare may be on the table."

Haake also tweeted, "The hunt for waste & fraud is an omnipresent Washington promise- and a proposed way out of nearly every budgetary jam- but savings rarely materialize in a meaningful way."

Eric Michael Garcia, Washington, D.C. bureau chief for The Independent and a columnist for MSNBC's website, saw Haake's posts and tweeted, "This feels like the bigger news. Trump has said he would not cut Medicare but never said anything about cutting Medicaid."

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