Dr. Oz, head of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, talks program cuts, healthy eating during Philadelphia visit
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, was in Philadelphia Monday promoting the administration's mission of making America healthy again.
Before an event in West Philadelphia, Oz spoke with CBS News Philadelphia health reporter Stephanie Stahl for a wide-ranging conversation. Oz said he's committed to protecting the 160 million Americans who rely on Medicare and Medicaid.
During an event at the Second Antioch Baptist Church, Oz helped promote a campaign by the American Heart Association called Team Up to Take Down High Blood Pressure.
Oz, along with doctors from Penn Medicine, said controlling hypertension could save millions of American lives.
"It's called the silent killer since most people have no idea they have it until they have a stroke or a heart attack," Oz said.
An important way to control high blood pressure is healthy eating. The church is also a food pantry, and the former cardiothoracic surgeon underscored the importance of using food as medicine and touted the Trump administration's commitment to make America healthy.
"If you eat real food, food that comes out of the ground looking the way it looks when you eat it, that is the recipe for a healthy diet," Oz said.
But the Trump administration wants to cut food stamps and Medicaid, programs that cover nutrition and health costs for people with limited incomes.
Asked how they can make Americans healthier if these programs are being cut back, Oz said, "If we want to improve the health of the country, we have to make it easy to do the right thing."
Oz also said getting rid of fraud, waste and abuse will save millions, along with a work requirement for people to get benefits. He says making the system more efficient will help everyone.
Stahl: "Once you go through all of those systems, are you assuring people that the most vulnerable will continue to have services that they need?"
Oz: "It's our duty, if we're a great people — and we are a great people — to do just that."
Oz didn't provide any specifics on how he would make sure vulnerable people are protected from the proposed cuts.
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