Trump taps Mehmet Oz to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

US President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television talk show host and renowned Turkish-American heart surgeon, to head the agency that oversees health insurance programmes for millions of older, poor and disabled Americans.

"Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivising disease prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country," Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.

"He will also 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."

Oz, who ran a 2022 bid to represent Pennsylvania in the US Senate, has been an outspoken supporter of Trump and in recent days expressed support for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for the nation's top health agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.

"Americans need better research on healthy lifestyle choices from unbiased scientists, and @robertfkennedyjr can help as HHS secretary," Oz shared in a post on Instagram last week, along with a photo of him and Kennedy together.

As the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Oz would report to Kennedy.

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

Medicaid provides nearly-free health care coverage to millions of the poorest children and adults in the US, while Medicare gives older Americans and the disabled access to health insurance.

The Affordable Care Act is the Obama-era programme that offers health insurance plans to millions of Americans who do not qualify for government-assisted health insurance, but do not get insurance through their employer.