Pure evil incarnate
What is the meaning of the phrase “out of touch?” Ask Mehmet Oz and other Republicans who say things about Medicaid recipients that are simply not true. Perhaps they do know and are, instead, showing their complete disdain for the working class. This from the man who, in 2014, was hauled before the Senate to testify about his fake diet products. But this is Donald Trump’s administration, and every one of them is as crooked, dumb, and incompetent as Trump.
This uninformed man had the nerve to speak about work requirements for Medicaid. He was recently quoted as saying that people who face losing their health coverage should “prove that they matter.” Recently appearing on “Fox Business,” Dr. Oz spewed the lie that people on Medicaid don’t work. Oz said: “We’re asking that able-bodied individuals who are able to go back to work at least try to get a job or at least volunteer or take care of a loved-one who needs help or go back to school. Do something that shows you have agency over your future.” According to Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid recipients do exactly what Oz claims they should do: 64% are working full or part-time (20%), 12% cannot work because they are caregivers, 10% don’t work due to disability, 7% are in school, and 8% are retired.
Many of these people are working. According to a recent story in MSNBC, the bulk of workers on Medicaid work for Walmart, which does not pay its workers a living wage. To quote that piece: “[T]he benefits grifter here is not the recipients, but the corporations that depend on Medicaid to provide health insurance they don’t want to pay for.” Those workers are purposefully kept below the minimum number of hours that require an employer to provide insurance.
Perhaps people like Mehmet Oz and Mike Johnson who immediately declare people “lazy” without knowing the facts should educate themselves. How about requiring corporations like Walmart—which sits in the top spot of the Fortune Global 500—to pay a living wage to its employees or at the very least provide them with health insurance? Yeah, that would be too much of doing the right thing. Johnson, Oz, and others like them revere corporations. They continue to give them tax breaks, claiming that those breaks will “trickle down” to employees. Trickle down has not worked since Ronald Reagan introduced it in the 1980s. But that’s the lie Republicans continue to tell, and their voters continue to fall for it to the detriment of everyone else in this country.
Oz babbled on: “Go out there, do entry-level jobs, get into the workforce, prove that you matter.” These people do matter, Mehmet Oz. They may not matter to you and your fat-cat friends, but they matter to others. They are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children. They matter. Republicans continue to lie that their big ugly bill will not limit access to health care, but if they don’t even understand why people are using Medicaid for health care, they have no business cutting it. The Trump administration is the cruelest administration in history. They will reap what they are sowing.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years