Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the CMS, said he supports Medicaid work requirements during a confirmation hearing Friday.
The physician and TV personality told the Senate Finance Committee he was in favor of the controversial policies, which link beneficiaries’ eligibility in the safety-net insurance program to work, education or volunteer hours.
“I don’t think that should be used as an obstacle, a disingenuous effort to block people from getting on Medicaid,” Oz said. “However, I believe … there’s value in work. And it doesn’t have to be going to a job, it could be getting education. It should be showing that you want to contribute to society.”
If confirmed, Oz would oversee Medicaid, which has grown to cover nearly 80 million people alongside the Children’s Health Insurance Program, as well as huge government healthcare programs like Medicare and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
His nomination comes as Republicans mull Medicaid cuts to balance out Trump’s promised tax cuts and increases in defense and border security spending. Last month, House Republicans advanced a budget blueprint that calls for the Energy and Commerce Committee, which manages Medicare and Medicaid, to find $880 billion in savings.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said Republicans won’t cut entitlement spending, but could find savings by reducing waste, fraud and abuse — or implementing work requirements.
However, nearly all people enrolled in the safety-net program are already employed or would likely qualify for exemptions due to school attendance, caregiving responsibilities or disability or illness, according to a brief published in February by health policy research firm KFF.
The Trump administration has long supported work requirements. During his first term in office, the CMS approved waivers for a number of states to put the programs in place, but nearly all were struck down by courts and never went into effect. Then-President Joe Biden rescinded the waivers when he took office.
Arkansas was the only state to fully adopt work requirement policies with consequences for noncompliance during Trump’s first term. Before the mandate was struck down in federal appeals court, nearly a quarter of those subjected to the work requirement, or 18,000 people, lost coverage.
The only work mandate currently in effect in the U.S. is in Georgia, after the state sued the Biden administration to let the policy go into effect. The state partially expanded Medicaid in exchange for the work requirements in 2023, but enrollment has been slow. The program has enrolled more than 6,500 people as of Jan. 31, far short of Georgia’s initial expectations.
During the confirmation hearing Friday, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., said the paperwork requirements needed to prove eligibility in his state were “onerous.”
He cited a travel nurse who struggled to verify her work status due to the unpredictable nature of her work, and later found out she had a series of strokes and needed to save money to see a neurologist.
Warnock also discussed a woman who couldn’t work because she was caring for her 84-year-old father. Oz agreed that both deserved access to Medicaid.
“You’ll never get any pushback from me about the value of a work ethic and the purpose that work provides, which is why I think people ought to have healthcare so they can get back to work,” Warnock said. “Very often they can’t get back to work in Georgia because they can’t get healthcare.”
