The health insurance coverage for 3.5 million vulnerable New Jersey residents will be overseen by a cardiologist and former television personality known for promoting highly questionable cures, if President-elect Donald Trump gets his way. The incoming Republican president announced Tuesday he will nominate Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, which provides health care and insurance coverage for more than 160 million Americans. Trump has embraced some of Oz’s more controversial claims, including his promotion of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, despite a lack of evidence.
“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement, claiming Oz would take on the “illness industrial complex” and promote disease prevention. Oz — who owns property in Cliffside Park — is known primarily for his role as host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” which ended in 2022 when he ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania, losing to Democratic Sen. John Fetterman. Oz has no government experience. To read the full story.