Rep. Thomas Massie suggested that COVID patients would still be alive if they were not on Medicare.
Rep. Massie tweeted:
Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll ?
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 9, 2022
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
There Is No Link Between COVID Deaths And Being On Medicare
Rep. Massie’s tweet was false and misleading information. The statistic that Massie cites appears to be the percentage of COVID deaths among people over age 65. As of December 2021, 75% of all COVID deaths in the US came in the over 65 age group.
Since people over age 65 are on Medicare, Massie conflated two unrelated facts and turned them into a false attack on the Medicare program.
There is zero evidence that people on Medicare died from COVID because they were on Medicare.
The reality is that Medicare allowed many of these seniors to get the treatment that they otherwise would not have been able to afford. Even though many of them lost their lives, their deaths had nothing to do with the Medicare program.
Rep. Massie (R-KY) is the same congressman who confused a quote from the Nazis with Voltaire, so his intellectual slope is already slippery, but the idea of using COVID as an attack on Medicare is a whole different realm of misinformation.
Before Medicare, seniors didn’t have health insurance coverage. An illness could be a financially ruinous event that led to people spending their golden years penniless and impoverished.
Massie was attempting to scare people with the Medicare for all boogeyman, but his attack revealed the illogical heartlessness of right-wing ideology.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
