Valentine’s Day is about more than showering your partner with loving messages and gifts, or giving out cookies at work, or receiving cards from friends and family.
It’s also a day where the #HealthPolicyValentines hashtag starts trending on Twitter — reminding people that issues like Medicare for All, systemic health disparities and insulin price caps are also tied to the idea of love.
In an annual tradition, Twitter users — from physicians to hospital systems to ordinary people – take to the platform to post a four-line poem based on “roses are red,” then incorporate pithy health policy comments with impactful quips.
Many are humorous and lighthearted, but others hit hard on serious issues like gun violence as a public health threat – or the tenuous state of the U.S. healthcare system.
For example, in one tweet, Kaiser Family Foundation research assistant Shameek Rakshit writes, “Roses are red, Violets are blue, Our peers spend less on healthcare and live longer than we do.”
Even Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joined in on the trend, echoing President Biden’s recent call to cap insulin costs for everyone, not just seniors.
From commenting on the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency to calling for price transparency to advocating for healthcare for migrants, #HealthPolicyValentines sheds light on many relevant issues that remain on people’s minds even on holidays.
Having good healthcare, after all, is a way to maintain self-love and self-care; in a way. #HealthPolicyValentines are asking for the healthcare system to dole out a little more love to patients nationwide.
Here are more of the top #HealthPolicyValentines we saw this year.
