- Finance & Banking
- Economics
- History
- Monetary Policy
- Economic
- Political Philosophy
- Politics, Institutions, and Public Opinion
- Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
Jon Hartley and Dr. Oz along with his two deputies discuss running the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) which administers the major federal government healthcare programs within the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), tackling Medicaid and Medicare fraud across the nation, healthcare changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill (Working Families Tax Cuts Act), lowering pharmaceutical drug prices through most favored nation (MFN) deals and TrumpRx, and integrating AI and technology into CMS workflows.
Recorded on June 11, 2026.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Mehmet Oz is the 17th administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and professor emeritus at NY Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center. A renowned heart surgeon, author, and television host, Dr. Oz has won nine Daytime Emmy Awards and written eight New York Times bestselling books. He founded HealthCorps, a national nonprofit that has helped millions of students improve their health and well-being.Dr. Oz has been recognized by Time, Forbes, Esquire, Harvard University, and AARP for his influence in medicine, media, and public service.
Daniel Brillman is the director of Medicaid and CHIP and deputy administrator at CMS, with extensive experience in health care technology, reform, and care delivery models, advancing cross-sector coordination, data interoperability, and analytical insights. Previously, Brillman was the CEO and co-founder of Unite Us, the nation’s largest outcome focused technology infrastructure that connects health care, government, and community-based services to coordinate care in real-time for millions of Americans. He is also a military officer of the Air Force Reserves, serving for over 17 years and completing multiple combat deployments as a pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq, for which he earned multiple air medals and bronze campaign stars. Brillman continues to serve as a Major, with assignments at Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) as a joint strategic liaison officer and as an admissions liaison officer.
Kimberly Brandt is CMS’ deputy administrator and chief operating officer. Brandt has held multiple senior executive positions in government, including as principal deputy administrator at CMS for policy and operations during the first Trump administration. In that role she oversaw all activities necessary for the operation and management of CMS’ $1.4 trillion budget in addition to leading efforts to reform the Physician Self-referral regulations and to develop the first CMS interoperability rule. She previously served as chief oversight counsel and general counsel on the staff of the US Senate Finance Committee where she led multiple healthcare investigations and the investigation into IRS political targeting, as well as oversaw the political nominations process.
Jon Hartley is currently a Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an economics PhD Candidate at Stanford University, a Research Fellow at the UT-Austin Civitas Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and an Affiliated Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Jon also is the host of the Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast, an official podcast of the Hoover Institution, a member of the Canadian Group of Economists, and the chair of the Economic Club of Miami.
Jon has previously worked at Goldman Sachs Asset Management as a Fixed Income Portfolio Construction and Risk Management Associate and as a Quantitative Investment Strategies Client Portfolio Management Senior Analyst and in various policy/governmental roles at the World Bank, IMF, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and the Bank of Canada.
Jon has also been a regular economics contributor for National Review Online, Forbes and The Huffington Post and has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, National Post, and Toronto Star among other outlets. Jon has also appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg, and NBC and was named to the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Law & Policy list, the 2017 Wharton 40 Under 40 list and was previously a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Each episode of Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century, a video podcast series and the official podcast of the Hoover Economic Policy Working Group, focuses on getting into the weeds of economics, finance, and public policy on important current topics through one-on-one interviews. Host Jon Hartley asks guests about their main ideas and contributions to academic research and policy. The podcast is titled after Milton Friedman‘s famous 1962 bestselling book Capitalism and Freedom, which after 60 years, remains prescient from its focus on various topics which are now at the forefront of economic debates, such as monetary policy and inflation, fiscal policy, occupational licensing, education vouchers, income share agreements, the distribution of income, and negative income taxes, among many other topics.
For more information, visit: capitalismandfreedom.substack.com/
