Dr. Oz Sworn In at CMS: “Medical Errors Are the #3 Cause of Death”; Declares War on Medicare Fraud, Chronic Disease, and DEI Spending

Dr. Mehmet Oz delivered his inaugural remarks as the 17th Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in April 2025, confirmed by the Senate in a 53-45 vote. Oz presented four alarming statistics: Medicaid is the number one budget item crowding out education in many states; healthcare spending exceeds economic growth by 2%; medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America; and U.S. life expectancy has fallen more than four years behind comparable nations. He outlined three priorities: reducing chronic disease (“70% of healthcare expenditures are driven by chronic disease — it is your patriotic duty to take care of yourself”), modernizing Medicare and Medicaid, and crushing fraud. Among the fraud examples: a quarter million Americans fraudulently enrolled in exchange programs, “tens of millions” spent on illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid in California, and Medicaid dollars diverted to DEI programs and student loan repayments.

The Four Bullet Points

Oz structured his remarks as a physician delivering a diagnosis — honest, data-driven, and uncomfortable.

“We’ve got to be honest with each other,” Oz said. “And a physician — President Trump has to always do that, right? We’ve got to share our news, sort of prognoses that folks don’t want to hear, but it’s important for our well-being.”

Bullet point one: “Medicaid is the number one budget item for many states, and it is crowding out education, other important social programs. The states are having a big problem, and that’s with the federal government paying most of the bill.”

Bullet point two: “Healthcare expenditures are increasing at 2% higher than the economy is growing. And because of that, we spend more than two times per person on healthcare than any other country on the planet, and we’re not getting value for that.”

Bullet point three: “We are in America experiencing an unfortunate problem, which is medical errors are the number three cause of death.”

Bullet point four: “Our life expectancy, despite all this investment, is continuing to slip back, and we’re now more than four years shorter in our life expectancy than countries that we used to be equal to.”

The four statistics painted a picture of a healthcare system that was simultaneously the most expensive in the world and one of the least effective. America spent twice as much per person as any other country, yet its citizens died younger, suffered more from medical errors, and bore a chronic disease burden that consumed 70% of all healthcare dollars. The system was not just broken — it was actively killing the people it was supposed to help.

”Your Patriotic Duty”

Oz identified chronic disease as the root cause of America’s healthcare crisis.

“First, we’re gonna reduce chronic disease,” Oz said. “70% of the healthcare expenditures of this country are driven by chronic disease.”

He reframed health as a national security issue: “And it is your patriotic duty — I’ll say it again — the patriotic duty of all Americans to take care of themselves, because it’s important for serving in the military, but it’s also important because healthy people don’t consume healthcare resources.”

He offered a simple formula: “The best way to reduce drug spending is to use less drugs, because you don’t need them because you’re healthy. And it feels a lot better as well.”

He connected to the MAHA movement: “The President and Secretary Kennedy have been pushing the MAHA agenda because it makes it easier for people to do the right thing, especially the mothers of this great land, because they’re the ones who really get caught with this responsibility. They’re the ones deciding for their kids.”

The “patriotic duty” framing was transformative. For decades, health had been treated as a personal choice or, in the progressive framework, a systemic inequality requiring government intervention. Oz was proposing a third framework: health as civic responsibility. Just as citizens had a duty to defend their country, they had a duty to maintain their own health — not because the government demanded it, but because a healthy population was the foundation of a strong nation.

The connection between chronic disease and healthcare costs was the most important health policy insight of the decade. America didn’t have a healthcare cost crisis; it had a chronic disease crisis. Diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and related conditions consumed the vast majority of healthcare dollars. No amount of insurance reform, price negotiation, or administrative efficiency could fix a system that was treating preventable conditions in hundreds of millions of people.

Modernizing Medicare and Medicaid

Oz outlined his second priority with a focus on patient and provider empowerment.

“That’s how Americans will get the care that they want, need, and deserve,” Oz said. “Need to empower patients and providers, both. The doctors and the patients both have to be equipped with better tools.”

He praised Trump’s executive orders: “And the President is showing that he actually does love and cherish Medicare with all these executive orders, like the one on transparency, sir, that really helps us by making sure people are equipped with information.”

He stated the principle: “You shine a light in the dark shadows where so much of the problems happen with the healthcare system.”

He delivered the key insight: “The most expensive care is bad quality care. That’s why we want to stamp it.”

The modernization agenda reflected a recognition that CMS — which oversaw health insurance for over 150 million Americans — was operating on systems and processes designed for a different era. Oz’s 6,000 CMS employees and 40,000 contractors represented an enormous bureaucratic apparatus that needed technological and operational reform to deliver on its mission.

”We Are Coming for You”

Oz’s most explosive remarks concerned fraud, waste, and abuse in federal healthcare programs.

“I’ve got a message for all the bad guys from me, the Secretary, and the President,” Oz said. “We are going to stop people from stealing from our most vulnerable, from stealing from the taxpayers of America who are honestly trying to support these programs. We are coming for you.”

He provided specific examples that stunned the audience.

First: “Almost a quarter million people, American citizens, were fraudulently enrolled without their knowledge in exchange programs by brokers who were unscrupulous, stealing from the US government by pretending these people were on programs they never told them about.”

Second: “Tens of millions of dollars, Mr. President, are being spent on illegal immigrants receiving Medicaid in California, and they’re pushing the bill to us. Should we stop that? I think so. That will not continue.”

Third: “We’re spending about a billion dollars on Medicaid programs for dual-state eligible patients, which means you live in one state, but the system thinks you’re in another state and maybe a third state. We’re paying all three states for services you’re not getting because you don’t live in three states at once.”

Fourth: “There are states who are using Medicaid dollars for people who are vulnerable for non-medical purposes. For example, public labor unions are getting childcare through some of this money. Housekeeping — I wish I could get that for my home. There’s a big problem with student loan repayments taking place with Medicaid dollars. And we are paying for DEI programs.”

He concluded: “We have created a war room at CMS to go after, to catch fraud in real time before the money leaves the federal coffers. So we have the money to reinvest in healthcare to make it even stronger.”

The fraud examples were each individually scandalous. Taken together, they painted a picture of a system so poorly managed that billions of dollars were being diverted from their intended purpose. Medicaid money — designed to provide healthcare to the most vulnerable Americans — was instead funding illegal immigrant healthcare, phantom enrollments, payments to states for patients who didn’t live there, union benefits, and DEI programs.

The Kennedy Partnership

Oz opened his remarks by thanking Secretary Kennedy and Trump.

“Secretary Kennedy has been leading the charge at Health and Human Services,” Oz said. “A dear friend, like a brother, and I will treasure for the rest of my days your trust in me to help you with this mission.”

The Oz-Kennedy partnership represented a union of two approaches to healthcare reform. Kennedy brought the MAHA movement’s focus on food quality, environmental toxins, and pharmaceutical industry accountability. Oz brought clinical expertise, media communication skills, and now the administrative authority to implement changes at the largest healthcare payer in the country.

Key Takeaways

• Dr. Oz was sworn in as 17th CMS Administrator after 53-45 Senate confirmation, overseeing healthcare for 150+ million Americans.
• His four diagnoses: Medicaid crowding out state budgets; spending 2x per person vs. other nations; medical errors as #3 cause of death; life expectancy 4+ years behind peers.
• On chronic disease: “70% of healthcare expenditures are driven by chronic disease. It is your patriotic duty to take care of yourself.”
• Fraud examples: 250,000 fraudulently enrolled citizens, “tens of millions” on illegal immigrant Medicaid in California, $1 billion in dual-state phantom payments, Medicaid diverted to DEI and student loans.
• Oz to fraudsters: “We are coming for you. We’ve created a war room at CMS to catch fraud in real time before the money leaves federal coffers.”