Minutes after Donald Trump nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Sen. John Fetterman was telling reporters he’s open to supporting his 2022 Senate opponent.
“I’m going to be very, very clear: If Dr Oz agrees to protect and preserve Medicaid and Medicare, I’m absolutely gonna vote for the dude,” Fetterman said outside his office on Tuesday.
Fetterman and Oz had a more divisive rivalry than most Senate candidates. Fetterman gained national recognition for his frequent social media jabs at Oz, from accusing the TV doctor of being a carpetbagger to being an out-of-touch wealthy celebrity.
The Fetterman campaign rented a plane to fly a “Welcome Home” banner across the New Jersey coastline — where Oz had one of his homes. He paid for celebrity cameos, from the likes of Snooki and musician Steven Van Zandt, petitioning for Oz to be included in the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The campaign quickly capitalized on Oz’s tone-deaf video where he misidentified a Pennsylvania grocery store and marveled at the cost of a crudités platter.
But Fetterman is more than ready, he said, to put all that in the past — as long as Oz will commit to preserving Medicare and Medicaid.
“We do have a history, but I don’t have any bitterness,” Fetterman said. “I don’t hold anything against him.”
“No hard feelings or anything. I’d have a beer with the dude. Whatever. That’s the game,” Fetterman said.
As administrator of CMS, Oz would report to the Department of Health and Human Services, which Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead. Oz would be responsible for administering the Medicare program and overseeing states’ Medicaid programs.
CMS also oversees standards for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and quality standards for long-term care facilities and manages oversight of the government’s health insurance website.
Fetterman said the last time he and Oz talked was after the Senate race was called. (“He had a very gracious call to concede,” Fetterman said.)
Fetterman even touted Oz’s background as “an accomplished surgeon” and “a medical expert,” though he said, “the only thing that matters in this role is to protect Medicare.”
In a statement announcing his nomination, Trump said Oz would “cut waste and fraud within our Country’s most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation’s Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget.”
Fetterman said he agreed that there is fraud within CMS and that “it’s only reasonable” for Oz to address that.
“I’m willing to work with anyone that has at least some kind of shared values and goals,” Fetterman said. “I mean, that’s why we’re here.”
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.