Conflicts of Interest and Lucrative Healthcare Grifts

• Among Oz’s most lucrative healthcare ventures was Sharecare, a digital health company he co-founded and held a reported stake in, the value of which could have exceeded $26 million in 2022. At that time, Sharecare had become the “exclusive in-home care supplemental benefit program” for 1.5 million Medicare Advantage enrollees, and was available to over 2 million enrollees by 2023. In 2024, Sharecare was taken private in a private equity deal worth $518 million, with Oz recently disclosing between $1-5 million in capital gains relating to Sharecare holdings. While he has promised to divest his remaining stake within 90 days, he has not vowed to abstain from decisions benefitting the company after divesting––in contrast with other companies with which he was involved, such as iHerb and Housey Pharma––raising questions about whether Oz would make decisions benefitting former business associates who helped him profit millions just last year. 

• Since 2023, Oz has posted extensive “influencer” social media content for iHerb, a health supplement retailer for which he was an investor with a stake in the company valued between $5-25 million stake as of February 2025. While Oz promised to divest his shares and abstain from decisions directly affecting the company for one year, he neglected to commit to abstaining from decisions affecting iHerb for the duration of his tenure, raising questions about whether he intends to leverage his position for iHerb’s benefit in exchange for a lucrative deal following his departure from CMS. 

History of Promoting Questionable Medical Claims

• In 2014, the British Medical Journal released a study that concluded that evidence either contradicted or was not found for over half the recommendations made on Oz’s show. 

• In 2015, a group of medical scholars publicly rebuked Oz for his “egregious lack of integrity” and for promoting “quack treatments” not backed by scientific evidence.

• The American Association for Thoracic Surgery banned Oz from publishing in its journal or presenting research at its annual conference after he was found to have made claims in a research paper that were unsupported by the data in the study he conducted. 

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz actively promoted debunked treatments such as anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. 

• Long before Ozempic, Oz advocated for "magical" weight loss pills that lacked reliable evidence of effectiveness. 

Advocacy for Medicare Privatization

• Oz has pushed for “Medicare Advantage for All,” a healthcare privatization effort that could force millions of seniors off of traditional Medicare and into private health insurance plans known for raising premiums and denying roughly one in ten claims that actually met Medicare coverage rules. Oz has proposed paying for his plan with a 20 percent payroll tax, which reportedly “would ultimately transfer money from workers to the Republican Party’s private insurance donors.” 

• On his show, Oz took sponsorship money from a private health insurance agency while urging viewers to immediately sign up for Medicare Advantage plans using a call hotline advertised on screen. Oz reportedly did not inform viewers that the company had sponsored the segment. 

Lack of Relevant Experience

• Oz has no prior experience running a government agency or large healthcare organization.