Twitter users were appalled on Wednesday when an official with the Department of Health and Human Services decided to celebrate Halloween by tweeting an insensitive joke about Medicare.
Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which falls under HHS, joked on Twitter that the “scariest Halloween costume” would be a shirt championing “Medicare for all.”
The rate of uninsured U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 has risen from 12.7 percent in 2016 to 15.5 percent in 2018, according to the health care foundation Commonwealth Fund. Roughly 4 million people lost coverage in the last two years, likely as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, the foundation said.
The uninsured rate is particularly high among lower-income adults — those living well below the poverty line, making roughly $30,000 for an individual and $61,000 for a family of four.
Verma subsequently tweeted about the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ efforts to “strengthen Medicare” and retweeted an article arguing that it would be a bad idea for all Americans to have access to a single-payer national health insurance program.
Many Twitter users were not convinced.
You know what’s really scary? Having to create GoFundMe pages when we get sick or when our family members or friends get sick just so they can get medical treatment. Sometimes we create these pages so they don’t die or go bankrupt. It’s really scary.
— Elise Salomon (@EliseSalomon) October 31, 2018
I’d imagine the families of the thousands of Americans who die every year because they have no health insurance would not find your Halloween “joke” funny whatsoever.
— Alex Kotch 🔥🚲 (@alexkotch) October 31, 2018
Wouldn’t it be terrible if everyone had health care and people didn’t get sick and die so much? FRIGHTENING.
— VOTE NOV 6 says MATT MINER (@MattMinerXVX) October 31, 2018
And the award for most terrible person in government goes to..
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) October 31, 2018
You seem cool and normal and not at all hateful of your fellow citizens.
— Natalia “Hexbomb” Antonova 🕯 (@NataliaAntonova) October 31, 2018
Yes, it would be a real nightmare for all Americans to have access to health care and not face death and bankruptcy if they get sick. 🙄
— Jason Wells (@jasonvwells) October 31, 2018
This seems like an odd way to announce that you’re unfit for office and going to resign, but it’s your choice I suppose.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 31, 2018
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