Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor and a former television presenter, has been confirmed by the US Senate to manage the agency that controls the health of millions of Americans.
Oz, who has never held a public office, was elected last year by President Donald Trump to run the Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) centers.
On Thursday, he was confirmed for the role of Republican-controlled US Senate with a party line of 53-45.
The 64-year-old, whose approaches have been under control, is trained as a surgeon before finding glory in Oprah Winfrey's show in the early 2000s.
Health experts have previously criticized the encouragement of Oz for what they consider to be bad health advice Weight Loss Medicines and “miraculous treatments”, and for the assumption of malaria medications can be used as a cure for Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.
After selecting CMS guidanceTrump said in a statement there, “there may be no more skilled and capable doctor … to make America healthy again.”
Prior to taking office, Trump's transitional team said Oz “works closely” with US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. to “take over the Industrial Complex for Disease”.
CMS controls the largest health programs in the country, providing coverage of approximately half of Americans.
It regulates health insurance and determines the policy that runs the prices that doctors, hospitals and medicinal companies are paid for medical services.
In 2023, the US government spent more than 1.4TN (1.1 TTN) on Medicaid and Medicare in combination, according to the Congress Budget Office.
The Oz also hosted the show of Dr.
But he was considered the recommendation of homeopathy, alternative medicine and other treatments that critics called “pseudoscience”.
Earlier, Democrats claim that a review of his financial records suggests that Oz may not have paid $ 403,739 taxes to Medicare on over $ 10 million in income from his media company between 2021 to 2023.
However, a spokesman for the CC said a review of the government ethics service found that he had complied with the law.