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Republican Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie has left people stunned after vociferously opposing the idea of Medicare For All for deeply nonsensical reasons.
For Massie, it's not the usual Republican bugaboos about the notion of universal healthcare setting him off, like the cost or the fallacious notion that it infringes on people's freedom choice.
Nope. Massie's objection to Medicare for All, as he posted on Twitter, is that many Medicare patients died of COVID-19. Yes, we promise you this is a real thing that Massie, a person with two advanced degrees from MIT, actually said.
See his tweet below.
Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll ?— Thomas Massie (@Thomas Massie) 1644422421
Massie (actually, seriously, unironically) tweeted:
"Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll ?"
Statistics for the share of COVID deaths who were Medicare patients are hard to come by since the pandemic is ongoing, so whether or not Massie's claim is correct is tough to verify. But that's not why it's a deeply dumb tweet.
It's a deeply dumb tweet because more than 75% of COVID deaths are 65 years of age or over--the exact demographic Medicare serves, with nearly all American seniors enrolled in the program. So of course the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths were people on Medicare.
It would be wholly unsurprising if the number were actually more than Massie's cited 70%, in fact. And it would still be a basically meaningless statistic that says nothing about the quality of care that Medicare recipients receive--which is actually quite high.
That's why seniors overwhelmingly approve of the program, and why Republicans leave it alone year after year, despite the program being the literal definition of the thing they claim is the greatest evil on Earth: socialism.
In short, Massie's tweet is almost impressively nonsensical, and it had people on Twitter banging their heads against the wall.
Because Covid severely impacted the elderly and the elderly are on Medicare. \n\nIf you paid someone to come up with this tweet fire them. If you came up with this tweet you should hang your head in shame.https://twitter.com/repthomasmassie/status/1491441851748204546\u00a0\u2026— Ruben Gallego (@Ruben Gallego) 1644423783
This guy is out here trying to single handedly kill @MIT brand. This may be the single dumbest thing I have ever read.— Mike Kirby (@Mike Kirby) 1644426106
After an exhaustive search we've found the stupidest person on the planet.https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1491441851748204546\u00a0\u2026— Josh Marshall (@Josh Marshall) 1644438384
Ok, genius, please explain yourself. Do you think Medicare causes Covid? Or do you just want people to have to go without insurance? God almighty.— Stephen Gauvin (@Stephen Gauvin) 1644422741
People who have health care coverage still die. Checkmate ... libs?https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1491441851748204546\u00a0\u2026— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1644428829
So they had health insurance and their families won\u2019t be left with crushing hospital debt after their death? \n\nNot sure this is the flex you think it is.— From Little Acorns (@From Little Acorns) 1644423398
Not only that, a disproportionate share of ALL deaths occur among Medicare-eligible individuals. Really makes you think— Adam W Gaffney (@Adam W Gaffney) 1644426207
96% of all 65+ have Medicare. 65+ make up about 74% of all (confirmed) COVID deaths.\n\nAssuming these are independent, 0.74 * 0.96 = 0.7104, or 71.04% of all COVID cases were on Medicare.\n\nSo if these variables are unrelated, over 70% is expected, so WHAT IS YOUR DAMN POINT?— Dr. Beth Hansen (@Dr. Beth Hansen) 1644434378
100% of Americans who died with COVID, died despite being made in God's image, and some people want us to follow God?— P\u00e9 (@P\u00e9) 1644425499
Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, were over 65 years old, and some people want to live to age 65?!?!— Adam (@Adam) 1644422677
In conclusion, let's all remember that correlation isn't causation.