Comedian John Oliver buys $15 million in medical debt; immediately forgives it

[Quixote1818]

Edit: Didn't realize this was a year old. Someone just posted it on Facebook. Anyway, here it is again for anyone who missed it like I did.



NEW YORK (WCMH) — Comedian John Oliver says he bought the medical debt of nearly 9,000 people and forgave it on his TV show “Last Week Tonight”.

According to CNN, Oliver announced his giveaway on his HBO show Sunday night.

Oliver said his show created its own collection agency and paid $60,000 for $15 million in medical debt. The segment was during a scathing takedown of the debt-purchase industry.

In, what he calls TV history, Oliver forgave the debt of nearly 9,000 people in an unprecedented move that will begin the process of wiping it clean from people’s records.

Oliver says his move was worth double the value of Oprah Winfrey’s famous car giveaway.

http://nbc4i.com/2016/06/06/comedian-john-oliver-buys-15-million-in-medical-debt-immediately-forgives-it/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. I remember watching that from last year. I love JO.

Watch starting at 17:16

?t=17m16s

[BSdetect]

19. Great, but will the recipients have to pay tax on the amount or is it a gift?

[CurtEastPoint]

20. No, he explained that in the video.

THey sold it to a charitable co. that absorbs the tax liabilities (don't ask...dunno)

[brucefan]

2. This is a year old

[pnwmom]

10. So? This is General discussion, not Late Breaking News. n/t

[Initech]

3. This was from last year.

[CrispyQ]

4. I don't care if this is a year old, I had not heard of this!

[sheshe2]

6. I heard about it...

and I still do not care if it is a year old.

[iluvtennis]

22. Me neither...thanks for sharing it.

[northoftheborder]

5. I hadn't heard about it. A marvelous thing to do.

[sheshe2]

7. K&R!

[Lars39]

8. Love him for this.

So smartly done, too

[Lotusflower70]

9. Wow just wow

He is awesome. Another weekly favorite. That was a fantastic thing he did. I love what he did with the tickets to Yankees games. He gave fans the opportunity to sit in prime seats for 25 cents through a photo contest. The pictures were hilarious.

[Orrex]

11. Apparently the most important thing is that this is a year old.

I love stories like this. Really lays bare the shocking greed of the usury industry. How much better off would the middle class be if they could pay their debts at the "sold" rate?


K/R

[airplaneman]

12. People need to realize we could have quantitative easing for people instead of banks or corporations

Last edited Mon Jun 12, 2017, 12:35 AM - Edit history (1)

The USA spends 10 times as much on corporate welfare than welfare for people.
The US government could buy off a trillion dollars of bad medical debt for $4 billion at the above mentioned ratio. Instead we bought $4.7 trillion of banks bad debt at full value which could have paid off every single individual first mortgage in the country with money left over to buy multiple trillions of bad debt. If a private corporation buys the $15 million in medical dept for $60,000 they will try to collect over $20 million as they get to add penalties and interest. Good old American capitalism. Add to this make all banks public and we could actually have a system that really benefits its citizens.
-Airplane

edit to correct math error.

[mountain grammy]

13. I was slow to warm up to him

but when he hosted for Jon Stewart for a while, I was hooked. Love the man. Thank you, England.

[SCVDem]

15. Carlos Danger!

[mountain grammy]

17. One of his best!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

14. WOW!!!!

I love him, even though I never watch teevee. I've only seen a few bits posted on YouTube.

But I love him. Even more now. I'll have to find more on YouTube.

[smirkymonkey]

18. I just recently started to seek him out on YouTube since I don't get him on TV.

He's hysterical - one of my new favorites. And now even more so! What a great guy for doing this!

When is the last time you ever heard of a republican doing such a great turn?

[mr_lebowski]

24. You got a lot to look forward to ...

Here's one of my all-time faves ...

And another classic ... love the vignette in the end with Jeff Goldblum ...

[smirkymonkey]

25. A very funny segment, but a very sad topic.

I love his humor, along with most of the liberal comics. If they didn't make us laugh, we wouldn't get through the tragedy of what is going on in this country.

[CurtEastPoint]

21. HBO puts his show in YouTube a day or two after it airs.

[pansypoo53219]

16. and his shit bucket segment.

samantha bee did a similar thing on road drug tests. how the poor are totally screwed.obama moves shit forward + DOKKK sessions wants a roll back.

[lostnfound]

23. That's brilliant and effective. Wow. What a great way to strike at an inhuman con game

[moonseller66]

26. Really? Concerned about a repeat post?

I’ve been a long time follower of DU but only a recent commenter. And this should upset a few of you.

What is it with those who feel the need to jump someone about an article that may have been posted earlier? So what? Not all of us are joined at the hip or wherever to DU 24/7/365 (or even 366 on the odd leap year). Some of us actually have lives outside of incessantly following sites, blogs, newspapers or watching politics on TV. And isn’t it usually someone with tens of thousands of posts? Like that makes them…whatever? Because they post so much, it’s ok I guess?

So if it happens I’m actually enjoying a nice Sunday away from all the crazy inflicted on this world for a day or so and someone repeats an article a day or two later, I may enjoy reading it because I evidently had the audacity to miss it when it was first posted!

And you know what? I’ll probably even post this again in a couple of days for any others who may have decided for whatever reasons to not read every minute by minute post every hour of every day on this or any other site. By the way, if I miss an article posted on Sunday how am I supposed to know on Thursday it was posted on Sunday if I didn’t see it Sunday? Do I spend time looking back a week, a month a year to find it or even a simple search to find something I have no idea was written? And if I did see it once, is it not possible to just ignore it? Is my time THAT valuable to waste a whole couple moments rereading something? You know, I bet if I start to read something I had already read, why, I can just stop, can’t I? Am I supposed to take my valuable time to berate someone who may or may not have known they were posting a repeat? And if they did know, so what?

I’m sure there will be some who will take the time to get off their high horse to bitch at me. Have fun. But know that every time you complain about someone you’ve “put in his place” for repeating an article or comment, aren’t you just “reposting” an already posted comment? Been there. Read that. So What?

Next up? “Better educated than us” Grammar Nazis and their need to try to embarrass other’s writing…for the other’s own good, of course!

Oh yeah! Rules is rules. So many "perfect" people who have never had hemmorrhoids!

Been fun.

[sammythecat]

35. Kinda sounds like you're calling it quits

I hope you continue posting.

I never knew John Oliver did this. I'm glad I found out tonight.

[MFM008]

27. Respect to him

Nomatter when he did it.

[trof]

28. Damn. I had no idea he had that kind of money.

[mr_lebowski]

29. It's 'only' $60K ...

You didn't think him (and/or his show) could come up w/that kinda dough?

[trof]

32. So how "million"?

[Kaleva]

34. Debt is sold for pennies on the dollar.

[trof]

39. Ah. Thanks.

[Warren DeMontague]

30. John Oliver is great.

His show is spot-on, generally.

[whopis01]

31. I had not heard about that

Thanks for posting it - even if it is a year old!

[MineralMan]

33. What if the government did that for all medical debt?

At that discount, it could all be cleared up overnight. 0.4% is what that is.

[niyad]

36. I don't care if it is a year old. it is a good thing to remember, so thanks!!

let us face it--we need every morsel, every teeeny tiny bit of uplifting news, every evidence that there are good, caring, loving, smart, wonderful people in the world.

[Kaleva]

37. An offshoot of Occupy Wallstreet did this a couple years back.

[disillusioned73]

38. That was very cool..

hadn't heard about it..