Mehmet Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon turned talk show host and lifestyle guru, is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the massive federal health care bureaucracy that covers more than a third of Americans.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Donald Trump's pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, has evolved on health care policy over the years.

Oz has made his preference known for privatized Medicare, which could substantially disrupt the current system.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a key federal agency that oversees health insurance coverage for more than 150 million Americans.

If confirmed by the Senate, Oz would be responsible for the programs — Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act — that more than half the country relies on for health insurance.

Oz used his TikTok page on multiple occasions in November to praise Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including their efforts to take on the “illness-industrial complex,” and he slammed “so-called experts like the big medical societies” for dishing out what he called bad nutritional advice.

Dr. Mehmet Oz could hold millions of dollars in investments in companies regulated by the federal agency Donald Trump has tapped him to lead. During his failed Senate run in 2022, the former talk show host reported tens of millions of dollars in investments in health care,