UPPER MACUNGIE TWP., Pa. — At the 2025 Lehigh Valley Healthcare Summit, there seemed to be a consensus that the system the United States has in place to provide medical care to its citizens needs an overhaul.
Even Rick Anderson, the president and CEO of St. Luke’s University Health Network, while pointing out that the Lehigh Valley has “two excellent healthcare systems,” acknowledged that “(healthcare) is too expensive, no question.”
But opinions offered last Friday inside the Aster Event Center on whether the Trump administration is going about it the right way differed from those of about two dozen protesters who gathered outside the venue in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County.
Representatives of the groups Queer and Trans Lehigh Valley and the Eastern PA Trans Equity Project gathered in the cold to show their opposition to the featured speaker, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Dr. Oz at the Lehigh Valley Healthcare Summit
WFMZ
One of the protesters, Kevin Wilson of Bethlehem, said members of gay and transgender communities are concerned about losing access to gender-affirming medical care and therapies.
Another protester, Robin Gow, added, “For us it’s not a left, right or center issue, it’s a human rights issue when it comes to healthcare and when it comes to care for our communities.”
Wilson said there’s some trepidation that fair-housing rules might be one of the next dominos to fall.
“Here in Pennsylvania there are… depending on where you live, you could still be discriminated against with housing,” said Wilson. “People are scared.”
In June, CMS took action to prohibit federal healthcare subsidies from being used to help cover the cost of “specified sex-trait modification procedures to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity that differs from the individual’s sex.”
Protestors outside Lehigh Valley Healthcare Summit
Jenny McCain
During his speech on Friday, Oz didn’t address that or other CMS changes specific to the trans community. 69 News was told he was unavailable for an interview after his speech at the summit.
Chamber President and CEO Tony Iannelli, though, acknowledged the debate that was sparked when news of Oz’s impending visit was made public.
“I have now answered about 75 emails from people, some very happy, some had concerns about today’s event and / or the speaker,” he told the crowd.
Iannelli later went outside to speak with the protesters. Gow said, while he appreciated the gesture, he wished the chamber had never invited Oz to speak in the first place.
“If you want to stand up for trans folks, don’t platform people who have publicly been incredibly transphobic and harmful to our community,” Gow said.
The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce did not respond to a 69 News email request seeking a response.
During his speech, Oz, a heart surgeon and former television pitchman, made something of a pitch to the Lehigh Valley’s medical professionals.
“So actually, I came here as a recruiting trip, because if any of you want to come join us, we’re hiring, and we’re looking for top-tier folks who have experience and domain expertise in health care,” he said. “It’s with those kinds of people that we can affect some of the changes, because our biggest enemy in healthcare is actually nihilism. People don’t think we can fix it, but there’s so much we can do to address it.”
And, according to Oz, the Trump administration is addressing it by enacting changes that include a revamp of the prior-authorization process that often slows care and is the source of much haggling between patients and insurance companies. New rules aim to cut down on the wait-time for patients and reduce the number of procedures that would require prior-authorizations.
Also, in September, CMS announced the launch of a $50 billion rural health program. States must apply for a portion of the funding to address their specific challenges when it comes to providing care to rural communities.
“There are rural areas in this region of Pennsylvania that will benefit directly (from the funding),” Oz said, “but you also have a top tier healthcare system that could adopt some of those rural systems and play a role in improving the quality of care.”
In addition, the Trump administration is taking steps to cut waste and fraud, Oz said. He referenced a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota from the COVID-19 era; dozens of people have been arrested and stand accused of ripping off the federal government through a bogus program that claimed to be providing meals to children. Some of the defendants are members of the state’s large Somali community.
“We have tens of billions of dollars stolen from us every year because we’re a massive target for foreign governments or multi-country mafia groups, organized criminal elements that are knowingly coming into America and trying to penetrate our security systems,” Oz said.
WFMZ-TV | Jenny McCain
Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Sen. David McCormick, another speaker at the summit, said there’s no question that the U.S. healthcare system has an affordability problem.
“It’s about two to three times more expensive for an American to get healthcare than for anybody else in any developed, advanced economy,” he told the crowd.
McCormick said the Senate will soon take up debate on expiring healthcare subsidies.
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of 35 Congressmembers, including U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R- 7th), announced a new healthcare framework, CommonGround 2025. It includes a two-year extension of health insurance premiums, including a year of the enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs) with modifications. It also calls for new guardrails to prevent “ghost beneficiaries” and crack down on fraud. The group is pushing for votes in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives later this month.
Mackenzie appeared briefly on stage with Oz, who praised him as a “brave” and “effective” leader. Oz told the crowd he met many of Pennsylvania’s politicians, including then-state Rep. Mackenzie, when he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2022.
“Fortunately, we had that existing relationship beforehand, because when we both showed up in Washington in January of this year we were able to hit the ground running and work together on things right out of the gate,” Mackenzie said. “And that’s going to be a real benefit for the Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania.”