'Can't believe he insulted Trump': Gavin Newsom mocks Dr. Oz's comments on Medicaid recipients

Dr. Mehmet Oz faced backlash after claiming that an average able-bodied Medicaid recipient watched over 6 hours of television every day to justify the new work requirements. While his comments were slammed online by several users, California Governor Gavin Newsom took the opportunity to mock both President Donald Trump and Oz with a classic insult. 

The Administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services appeared on Fox Business on Tuesday morning to discuss the new work requirements for Medicaid recipients. "You have to work," said Oz before claiming that "the average person who is on Medicaid, who's able-bodied, watches 6.1 hours of television, or just hangs out every day. That's not why God put you here." Sharing a clip of his interview, Newsom wrote: "Wow. We can't believe Dr. Oz would insult Donald Trump like that," on X. 

Newsom could possibly be referring to a 2017 report from The New York Times, which claimed Trump sometimes spends as many as eight hours watching television, citing sources closer to the President at the time. However, the issue Newsom took is regarding the claim that Oz made about how Medicaid recipients spend their time. It appears Oz was referring to an analysis from the American Enterprise Institute, which showed non-working Medicaid recipients spent about 6.1 hours per day watching TV, playing video games, or on other socializing activities.

The data has been used by the administration to justify the new statutory requirement for certain adults in Medicaid to meet an 80-hour per month work requirement. It applies to non-pregnant adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who are not entitled to or enrolled in Medicare, but certain individuals are exempt from the requirement, CMS notified. Democrats have long opposed the work requirements, claiming they are discriminatory and would cost millions of people their coverage.

According to The Hill, most Medicaid beneficiaries are already working or face barriers to employment. Furthermore, projections from the Congressional Budget Office estimated about 5 million people would become uninsured by 2034 due to the new work requirements, including many who are working the necessary hours but can't handle the paperwork. Another estimate from the Urban Institute estimated between 4.9 million and 10.1 million enrollees losing coverage in 2028. The estimate showed that between 2 million and 3 million of these enrollees would lose coverage as their eligibility would be determined more frequently, and between 3 million and 7 million people could lose coverage only because of the new work requirements. 

Newsom has previously clashed with Oz over the apparent crackdown on Medicaid fraud. Earlier this year, Newsom filed a formal civil rights complaint against Oz, the administrator, charging that he had illegally discriminated against Armenian Americans in Southern California after he tied the community to health care fraud in a video. Newsom sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, claiming that Oz "spewed baseless and racially charged allegations" as he claimed about $3.5 billion worth of fraud had taken place in hospice and home care in the Van Nuys area of LA, The New York Times reported.