Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo defends COVID-19 nursing home policies during congressional testimony

(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that heart surgeon-turned-TV-host Dr. Mehmet Oz would lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“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. “He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades.”

The position of CMS administrator requires Senate confirmation.

Here’s what to know about Oz, his medical career and some medical claims he’s made that have come under fire.

Is Oz a real doctor?

Oz graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed a Master of Business Administration from UPenn’s Wharton School of Business at the same time.

He completed his surgical training in cardiothoracic surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia Campus).

He was previously the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and vice-chairman and professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His title was then changed to Professor Emeritus of Surgery in 2018.

Medicine “was my calling,” Oz said in a Wharton Magazine profile from 2010. “I knew it from a very early age. I played a lot of sports growing up, and like a lot of other athletes, I really enjoyed the challenge of using my hands. I just loved the idea of being in a field where you could [do that].”

Oz began his TV career as a health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” before launching “The Dr. Oz Show,” which ran from 2009 to 2022. The show ended when Oz launched an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

What would Oz run as CMS administrator?

CMS administers the Medicare program, the federal health insurance program for those mostly aged 65 and older.

The agency also works with state programs to administer Medicaid, which is health insurance for disabled and low-income Americans, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides low-cost coverage to children with families that don’t qualify for Medicaid.

Oz has supported Medicare Advantage, which is run by commercial insurers and has been promoted by Trump. Project 2025 — a plan of conservative policy proposals proposed by the Heritage Foundation and not endorsed by Trump — has proposed Medicare Advantage be the default option for Medicare coverage.

Experts have said this could privatize the program and prevent people from receiving care from doctors and hospitals that don’t accept Medicare Advantage.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Trump said Oz would work closely with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the president-elect’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS.

What are Dr. Oz’s past controversies?

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz promoted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as a COVID-19 treatment. Trump later touted the drug as a “game changer,” although medical researchers warned more study was needed.

In June 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19, saying evidence shows the recommended dose is unlikely to be effective against the virus.

Oz also made past statements indicating that he endorsed spacing out childhood vaccines and expressed ambivalence towards a discredited theory that vaccines cause autism, according to a 2022 study. In later episodes of his TV show, Oz would go on to endorse the measles, mumps, rubella shot.

Oz also came under fire due to his claims about certain “miracle” products to help consumers lose weight.

During a 2014 hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on consumer protection, then-Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri grilled Oz, claiming he had a role in “perpetuating” scams.

“When you feature a product on your show, it creates what has become known as the ‘Oz effect,’ dramatically boosting sales and driving scam artists to pop up overnight using false and deceptive ads to sell questionable products,” she said. “While I understand that your message is also focused on basics like healthy eating and exercise, I’m concerned that you are melding medical advice news and entertainment in a way that harms consumers.”

During the hearing, Oz defended his statements, saying he believed in the benefits of the products he promoted on his show.

“I actually do personally believe in the items I talk about in the show. I passionately study them. I recognize that often times they don’t have the scientific muster to present as fact. But, nevertheless, I give my audience the advice I give my family all the time. I give my family these products, specifically the ones you mentioned. I’m comfortable with that part,” he said.

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(ATLANTA) — The estimated number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have been dropping for months and are now at their lowest levels in three years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Deaths from overdoses dropped for the first time in five years in 2023, following a steady rise during the pandemic. However, the current number of overdose deaths still remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.

In April 2024, the latest month with data, the estimated number of deaths in the past 12 months was 101,168, according to the CDC. The last month with figures that low was in May of 2021, with 100,997 deaths.

Data from other sources, such as emergency department visits and calls to EMS, support the downward trend, according to an analysis led by Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, a senior scientist at the Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He tells ABC News that the data may point to 20,000 fewer deaths annually, or more.

While experts continue to explore possible reasons driving the decline, there are a few public health initiatives to curb drug overdoses that may be showing signs of success.

“Enhanced access to naloxone, expanded treatment programs for opioid use disorder, and increased public awareness about the dangers of synthetic opioids like fentanyl are likely playing significant roles in saving lives,” said Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News medical contributor.

Another potential explanation for the downturn, Dasgupta says, may be related to changes in the drug supply, such as more people using xylazine, a dangerous, non-opioid animal sedative that’s often mixed with other illicit drugs, including fentanyl.

“Xylazine makes people use less fentanyl, is the bottom line,” Dasgupta told ABC News, while citing research that showed that those who overdosed and tested positive for xylazine had less severe health outcomes than those who did not have xylazine in their system. This could be due to the fact that those who used illicit substances, like fentanyl, mixed with xylazine may be using those substances less often, Dasgupta said.

“We’re seeing this pattern kind of happening that looks a lot like a change in the drug supply, more so than just explained by all the interventions in the public health space,” Dasgupta added. “It’s probably a mix of all these things at the end of the day, but something really changed in the third quarter of last year.”

Within each state, however, the decline in overdose deaths is not uniform among all people. Maryland, for example, experienced a decline in deaths among white populations, yet an increase among Black populations, Dasgupta points out.

Changes in drug overdose deaths also vary greatly by state, with some still experiencing increases in the past 12 months, CDC data shows. States with the greatest dips in overdose deaths over the past year, according to the same data, were Nebraska, North Carolina, Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, in that descending order.

While the national downward trend may continue, experts told ABC News it may not be permanent.

“We’ve seen dips that have been erased a year later. So, I’m cautious. I feel like things really haven’t cooled down yet,” Dasgupta said. “It feels like we’ve put the lid on the pot, but we’re still at a rolling boil. There’s still a lot of people dying of overdose.”

“It’s crucial that we continue to intensify our efforts to address the root causes of the opioid epidemic,” Brownstein said. “We need to continue investing in comprehensive strategies that address the complex factors driving the opioid crisis.”

Jake Goodman, MD, MBA is a psychiatry resident physician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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(WASHINGTON) — Health care was one of the topics at the forefront of Tuesday night’s debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump said he was interested in replacing the Affordable Care Act — also known as “Obamacare” — but implied that he didn’t have any specific plans in place.

“Obamacare was lousy health care. Always was,” Trump said. “It’s not very good today and, what I said, that if we come up with something, we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it.”

When asked by ABC News moderator Linsey Davis to clarify if he had a health care plan, the former president said he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA but provided no details.

“If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our population, less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it,” Trump said.

“But if we come up with something, I would only change it if we come up with something better and less expensive,” he said later in the debate. “And there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you’ll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”

Last year, Trump posted on Truth Social that the ACA “sucks” and that he didn’t want to “terminate” the law but “replace it with much better health care.”

Dr. Dennis Scanlon, a distinguished professor of health policy and administration at Penn State, told ABC News there’s been much less of a focus on repealing and replacing ACA from Trump than seen in 2016 and 2020.

“I think what’s been noticeable in this election cycle [is] less discussion about the Affordable Care Act in terms of let’s repeal it or get rid of it,” he said. “I think last night in the debate, [Trump] basically straddled and said, ‘You know, if I can figure out a way to make it better, and we’re working on some concepts, we’ll do it, but not, that we will get rid of it.’ So I think that’s just different from what it’s been in the last two cycles.”

Scanlon mentioned that repealing the ACA is not even mentioned in the official 2024 Republican Party platform.

In 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law, requiring most Americans to have insurance and directing states to create health insurance exchanges to allow residents to sign up for insurance if they don’t receive coverage via an employer.

During his administration, Trump attempted to partially repeal the ACA by passing the American Health Care Act (ACHA). The plan would have repealed the individual mandate and the employer mandate, amended Medicaid eligibility and weakened protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.

The ACHA passed the House in May 2017 but failed to pass in the Senate. Perhaps mostly infamously, the Senate attempted to pass a so-called “skinny repeal” in late July 2017 but it was rejected, with Republican Sens. John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski siding with Senate Democrats to kill the bill.

In December 2017, a Republican tax reform law was passed that eliminated individual mandates, which Gallup said may have reduced participation in the insurance marketplace.

At the end of 2019, 13.7% of adults were without health insurance at the end of 2018, the highest level seen since early 2014, according to Gallup data.

In December 2019, Trump issued an executive order requiring all hospitals to make public standard charges, payer-specific negotiated charges, the amount the hospital is willing to accept in cash and the minimum and maximum negotiated charges.

“This an area where an attempt has been made … but the way it has played out has been challenging and not very effective,” Scanlon said, referring to a KFF analysis which found that transparency data was often inconsistent and confusing. “Such transparency is fundamental to reform and improvement in health care markets.”

In a statement to ABC News, Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, restated the former president’s commitment to release details soon.

“As President Trump said, he will release more details but his overall position on health care remains the same: bring down costs and increase the quality of care by improving competition in the market place,” she said. “This is a stark contrast to Kamala Harris’ support for a socialist government takeover of our healthcare system which would force people off their private plans and result in lower quality care.”

During the debate, Harris criticized Trump’s previous attempts to repeal the ACA, saying she wants to grow and expand the legislation. Her campaign platform mentions expanding the $35 cap on insulin and $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription medication costs for seniors to all Americans.

“There’s been a little bit of detail from the Harris campaign, but I would say also not much,” Scanlon said. “There’s some discussion about negotiating drugs, insulin prices, there has been some work done in that … but there’s a lot more to be done.”

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