President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday that he would nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz, the author and former television host, to serve as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a powerful agency that oversees health insurance programs covering more than 150 million Americans.
The selection of Dr. Oz, who lost to John Fetterman in 2022 in a race to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate, was a surprise to many close watchers of the agency, even in a health department that could be led by another unconventional pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It also continued a trend of Mr. Trump selecting television personalities to oversee federal agencies. His candidates to run the Defense and Transportation Departments have been working for Fox News and Fox Business.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services oversee several of the country’s largest government programs, providing health coverage to more than 150 million Americans. They regulate health insurance and set policy that guides the prices that doctors, hospitals and drug companies are paid for many medical services. About a quarter of all federal spending runs through the centers.
The centers are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which also includes the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their presence among those high-profile divisions has sometimes led to their work being overshadowed, despite their enormous influence in the American health system.
“C.M.S. touches virtually every family in America through Medicaid and Medicare, and it’s probably the most challenging technical, policy and political job in government,” said Drew Altman, the president of KFF, a health research group. “Even small, almost daily decisions at C.M.S. are billion-dollar decisions that affect industries and patients with serious illnesses who really care.”
In a statement announcing his choice, Mr. Trump said Dr. Oz would “work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake.” Mr. Trump noted that Dr. Oz had “won nine Daytime Emmy Awards hosting ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ where he taught millions of Americans how to make healthier lifestyle choices.”