Former TV doctor Mehmet Oz offered some jaw-droppingly out-of-touch advice to folks at risk of losing their Medicaid on Monday.
During an interview on Fox Business, Oz, who now serves as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, tried to put a positive spin on recent cuts that will slash the federal Medicaid program by $1 trillion and kick millions of people off their health care.
Oz began by saying that programs like Medicare and Medicaid “were a promise to the American people to take care of you if you’re having problems financially or you’re having an issue because you’re older and need health care.”
But he also told Fox host Stuart Varney that Americans should also do the most they can to stay healthy.
“We’ll be there for you, the American people, when you need help with Medicare and Medicaid, but you’ve got to stay healthy as well,” Oz said. “Be vital. Do the most that you can do to really live up to the potential, the God-given potential, to live a full and healthy life.”
It was his next piece of advice, however, that inspired waves of social media snark.
“You know, don’t eat carrot cake. Eat real food,” he said.
And, yes, Oz had brought a whole carrot cake for Varney.
“I couldn’t find a healthy cake, so I brought the closest thing, a carrot cake,” Oz said.
Not surprisingly, Oz’s suggestion that avoiding carrot cake makes you more worthy of affordable health care led to a flood of mockery.
Oz has been the subject of food-related social media snark on more than one occasion.
During his failed 2022 U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania, he was ridiculed for a video he made in a local grocery store griping about what he believed a crudité platter would cost.