Dr. Memhet Oz will have to divest millions of dollars in healthcare stocks and investments if he is confirmed as President Donald Trump’s head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to a government ethics report.
Offloading the investments would be necessary to make sure Dr. Oz — who rose to fame on his TV show of the same name — does not have a conflict of interest, where he is making decisions on companies in which he has money. The 64-year-old television personality pledged he would divest his assets within three months of being confirmed; those investments include:
— UnitedHealth Group: Between $300,000-$600,000
— Inception Fertility: Up to $5 million
— HCA Healthcare: Up to $600,000
— AbbVie: Up to $100,000
Dr. Oz also has an unspecified amount of money in pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, according to the Wednesday filing. The biggest position he would have to offload in order to be confirmed, the New York Times reported, is in iHerb, a website that sells health products; that investment is worth between $5 million and $25 million, the outlet reported.
His net worth, according to an Associated Press review of his filing, ranges from $98 million to $332 million.
Dr. Oz has not received a set date and time for his Senate confirmation hearing. Beyond Medicare and Medicaid, he would also oversee the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act, altogether covering about half of the U.S. population.
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