Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, gave his prescription for controlling spiraling health care costs Friday at the annual Lehigh Valley Health Care Summit as local trans activist groups protested his appearance.
Oz, a former heart surgeon and TV personality, headlined the event organized by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. The crowd at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township was packed with notable local health care figures, including the CEOs of Jefferson Health and St. Luke’s University Health Network, as well as politicians such as U.S. Sen. David McCormick, Lehigh Valley congressman Ryan Mackenzie and Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk. There was also a sizeable police presence, complete with sniffer dogs.
During his speech, Oz acknowledged that, despite having the highest per capita health care spending in the world, the average life expectancy of Americans is declining. He said costs are too high and payment structures in the health care system are not working as they should, leading to vital fields such as primary care and pediatrics seeing fewer new doctors because of lower pay. He said his son just graduated from medical school at Columbia University and that none of the graduates went into primary care.
Oz said a key goal of the Trump administration is addressing prior authorization, which he described as the most hated thing in the American health care system. Prior authorization is a process implemented by insurance companies where medical procedures, prescriptions or services ordered by a care provider need to be signed off on by the insurer before a patient can receive them.
“At its very core, it strips away at a precious moment where doctors and patients can have a covenant in the doctor’s office to work with each other. And they have a diagnosis that you want to act on and the insurance company reaches its long arm in and stops the process,” Oz said. “Now we get mad about it and curse them. But the reality is prior authorization of techniques also reduces unnecessary care. They protect patients when done correctly and not unsurprisingly, they cut 20% off the health care bill.
Oz said rather than making new rules through CMS or laws in Congress, the Trump administration asked the nation’s largest insurance companies to try and figure it out first. He said one solution they came up with is reducing the number of common procedures that trigger prior authorization and automating the process. Highmark in the Pittsburgh area also came up with something called the gold card system, where doctors who the insurers determine are good at following evidence-based guidelines never have procedures, prescriptions or services they order subjected to prior authorization, he said.
However, Oz said there are existing resources people are not taking advantage of, citing the free annual exams offered through Medicaid, which only 49% of enrollees useannually.
Protest
While local health care leaders listened to Oz speak inside the warm event center, a group of protesters gathered outside in 19-degree temperatures to voice opposition to Oz’s invitation and actions taken by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress. The protesters, who numbered more than 25, stood on the sidewalk along the perimeter of the hotel grounds, carrying signs and chanting slogans such as “medicine is overpriced, patients shouldn’t pay the price”, and “no quacks in Allentown.”
They were joined by Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, who is vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Mackenzie in the 2026 midterms, and Allentown City Council member Cece Gerlach, who is running for state House in the 22nd District.
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Show Caption
1 of 7
Protesters rally outside after Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speak Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Healthcare Summit at the Aster Event Center in Upper Macungie Township. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)
Prior to the event, Queer & Trans Lehigh Valley launched an email campaign asking people to call on the Chamber to disinvite Oz as a speaker. That group, along with the Eastern PA Trans Equity Project, organized Friday’s protest against Oz’s visit.
“We just disagree with the platforming of Dr. Oz at a health care summit, especially as his policies have had a direct impact on our trans community. Obviously, other communities as well,” said Robin Gow, one of the protest organizers. “We feel platforming someone who is spreading hate in this way is not something we want to see in the Lehigh Valley. We would have loved to see someone with more care and expertise in this area.”
During his Senate confirmation hearings, Oz told conservative leaders he disavowed transgender care. As head of CMS, he said Medicaid funds won’t be used for gender reassignment surgeries or hormone treatments in minors, saying these procedures can cause permanent, irreversible harm, including sterilization.
Corrine Goodwin, executive director of the Trans Equity Project, said that CMS actions go much further than refusing to pay for transgender health care. She said health systems have been intimidated into ceasing gender affirming care for anyone 19 years of age or younger, under threat of losing Medicaid and Medicare funding.
“So, you’re old enough to go to war. You’re old enough to vote, but you’re not old enough to make a decision on your health care?” Goodwin said.
Gow said under Oz, CMS has also issued new rulings that allow Affordable Care Act insurance plans to exclude gender affirming care from coverage.
Goodwin also blasted actions by Republicans that she said have resulted in massive cuts to Medicaid and Medicare under the One Big Beautiful Bill. She also pointed to the pending expiration of pandemic-era subsidies that help many Americans pay for their health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act.
“That means we are going to have tens of thousands of other people losing access to their healthcare,” Goodwin said.