Oz in 2016. Photo via Wikipedia.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 7, 2025 | As much as I wish it wasn’t, the government’s Do Not Call is a failure.
For the last several years, it seems the number of “junk calls” coming to our telephones continues to rise each year. But in the last few weeks, 90 percent have been robocalls.
Recently we’ve noted how many calls we’ve been getting. On my business line alone, we have had for the last five days 8, 10, 9, 11 and 12 calls. In addition, there were three or four such calls at our home each day. That’s getting out of hand.
New technologies have helped the robocall people. When the call comes in, my phone shows the number calling. That’s not really the number they are calling from. Their system falsifies the calling number so you will answer.
Have you noticed this? If it’s a junk call, there’s a certain click you hear as quickly as you answer. And then there’s a pause before an obviously recorded person comes on, with the cheerful friendly voice saying something like “Hi, Harriet here. I’m calling you to offer you….” or “make sure you know” or “reaching out to you…..”
For a while, I tried to tell that voice that this was a Do Not Call number, and they were violating federal law in making the call. That’s useless to a recorded voice.
The principal subject of recent calls is to enroll us in a Medicaid Advantage plan. Not only do I not want this insurance, I do not need it. That’s the subject of perhaps 85 percent of the calls, though some are to help me in my accident (but I haven’t had one), or to inquire if I want to sell my home.
Now, the person behind many of these calls has been identified. It’s someone many of us have heard of, no lesser soul than Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity television doctor. His company is heavily promoting the controversial private insurance plans for older Americans and making money out of it.
His for-profit company, TZ Insurance Solutions, runs call centers, paying people to call us and try to enroll us in their schemes. They are licensed in virtually every state, The New York Times reported in an extensive investigation on February 25. The story also reported that Dr. Oz has a cozy relationship with health care companies. He has made millions of dollars suggesting dietary supplements, often without any mention of his financial interest in the companies he boosts.
Now this grows more sinister. You may remember that Dr. Oz is one of President Trump’s nominees to run a government agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The ironic aspect is that if confirmed by the Senate, Dr. Oz would be overseeing health insurance coverage for nearly half of all Americans. He could expand the privatization of government insurance programs. In effect, he could be regulating the companies which he owns.
Dr. Oz is no stranger to money. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to wealthy Turkish Americans. He graduated from Harvard and then got both a medical and business degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a successful cardiothoracic surgeon in New York. Some estimate that he and his wife are worth up to $50 million. His wife is heir to the Asplundh Tree Expert firm.
And now we’ve identified him as responsible for junk-calling many of us.
Shame, shame, Dr. Oz. Many people thought you were better than this.
Note: just as I finished this column, yep, got another junk call from Dr. Oz’s people. Do Not Call just doesn’t work.
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