iPhone Health Care Comment Twitter Thread Debunks

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Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz solved the health care debate for all of us yesterday. If everyone would just stop buying iPhones and focus on their health instead, there wouldn't be a need for comprehensive, low-cost health care! (Duh.)

"Americans have choices, and they've got to make a choice," he said, according to CNN. "So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care."

His argument obviously ruffled a few feathers, and one Twitter user nailed the reason.

"I wanna get a feel for this," John Miguel McCauley tweeted on March 7. "RT if you've had a health care cost that was more expensive than the cost of an iphone (generously, $600)."

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As of writing, his tweet has more than 18,000 retweets and more than 8,000 people had replied to McCauley with stories of health care costs that go way above the cost of an iPhone.

lawmakers: agitate for universal, affordable health care! The support is there! I got ~8k stories today and I'm a nobody with zero influence
— John Miguel McCauley (@Mickey_McCauley) March 7, 2017

So many people tweeted their stories that McCauley reached his retweet limit and had to link to his status so everyone could see the replies. Their stories should sound familiar for anyone who's had a medical emergency, or even a common procedure.

Dad went into the hospital when I was a kid. We had no insurance. Bill was over $60,000. https://t.co/GO2WF4I3eR
— Jacquelyn Clements (@peripatesis) March 8, 2017

Here's a bill I just got for allergy testing, re: this tweet --> https://t.co/gswXucObjr pic.twitter.com/hdPanF4rXD
— Danielle Capriato (@DCapriato) March 8, 2017

Insulin pump is 8-10 times that price. My daughter's birth was 25 times that price. https://t.co/5YnOT2iDzF
— Steven Sundbeck (@stevis23) March 8, 2017

And many talk about the shocking cost of health care, even when you do have insurance.

Even with insurance, my husband's hernia surgery cost us $2,400. https://t.co/qAdkQWtZ1P
— Karissa Laurel (@KarissaLaurel) March 8, 2017

I broke my leg and it was $1000 after insurance ($2000 before). https://t.co/FSrlobDnD0
— Strangely Literal (@StrangelyLiterl) March 8, 2017

My bills from getting hit by a car while biking last summer were >$600, even with health insurance, because of copays, anesthesia, etc. https://t.co/BdxAYUSwvh
— Kristen Sunter (@ksunter) March 8, 2017

These are just a few of the health care horror stories still rolling in on McCauly's tweet. So, no Jason Chaffetz, opting out of a new iPhone is not going to offset the cost of getting the care we need.