A recent photo of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, speaking with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gained significant attention online but there’s been less attention paid to what they were actually discussing. Ocasio-Cortez said that the real story is about how Americans are “getting screwed” by Medicare Advantage plans.
The viral photo shows the representative in an apparent heated exchange with Kennedy, following his contentious testimony before Congress, which itself drew attention for his comments on vaccines, health care spending and President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on psychedelic drugs.
The exchange after the hearing, however, was about Medicare Advantage plans, according to Ocasio-Cortez’s office. Medicare Advantage plans are private health insurance plans marketed to seniors that are often criticized because they are presented as a low-premium alternative to traditional government-provided Medicare, but offer more limited coverage, and because they actually cost taxpayers more due to overpayment and fraud. All the while, private insurers line their pockets, profiting from the popularity of the Medicare brand.
Ocasio-Cortez’s press secretary, Karla Santillan, told Salon in an email that the representative was “personally following up on her question line regarding systemic fraud in the Medicare Advantage Program.”
“The Trump administration is rewarding giant health insurance companies for it with billions more in taxpayer money while companies are under federal investigation for fraud. We need to bring it to a stop,” Santillan told Salon. “These giant insurance companies that are running Medicare Advantage plans are stealing from people, and my boss believes the administration needs to end it.”
During the hearing, Ocasio-Cortez grilled Kennedy on funding for Medicare Advantage plans, with the government expecting to spend an additional $13 billion on the Medicare Advantage program in fiscal year 2027, when compared to fiscal year 2026. The figure was significantly higher than initially projected.
Incredible shots of the exchange between Rep. AOC and RFK, Jr. at today’s congressional hearing.
(image credit: WSJ reporter @lizessleywhyte.bsky.social)
— Charlotte Clymer (@charlotteclymer.bsky.social) April 21, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Ocasio-Cortez said during the hearing that this spending was going to an industry that “is defrauding the public.”
“So we know they’re lying. We know they’re lying through even their mechanisms. They are upcoding. They are telling us, the public, the government, Medicare, our systems, that people are sicker than they are so that they can get more money,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They’re lowering their reimbursement rates. They’re increasing denial. So we know that these folks are lying. We know that they’re bad actors. And if I’m hearing you correctly, we are giving them more money because they’re saying that they need it?”
