John Oliver Makes TV History By Forgiving $15 Million In Medical Debt

[Initech]

As part of a scathing takedown of the debt-purchasing industry, late night comedian John Oliver forgave nearly $15 million of medical debt with a tap of a giant red button on Sunday night.

Oliver called the giveaway the "largest one-time giveaway in television history." He just about doubled the value of Oprah Winfrey's famous "You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!" giveaway to her entire studio audience in 2004.

The stunt followed a long look at debt collectors on his HBO show "Last Week Tonight," in which Oliver sharply rebuked debt purchasers for unscrupulous behavior that is limited by hardly any regulatory oversight. (HBO is owned by CNNMoney's parent company, Time Warner.)

The segment included a hidden camera brought into a Debt Buyers Association conference by "Last Week Tonight" staffers, which showed panelists appearing to scoff at how Americans don't understand their legal rights about paying their debts.

To further illustrate the lack of regulation and ease at which debt collectors can harass people over money they owe, Oliver said "Last Week Tonight" spent $50 to create its own debt collection agency, based in Mississippi.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/06/06/technology/john-oliver-medical-debt/

Top that, Oprah!!!

[think]

1. Thank you John Oliver for shining a light on this.

[sarcasmo]

2. John Oliver with another beat down.

[niyad]

3. thank you, john oliver.

and don't forget the tax problems that the oprah car give-away caused.

[niyad]

4. occpuy wall street rolling jubilee is doing this, as well

http://rollingjubilee.org/

[annabanana]

18. It is a good deed in a cruel world that they do!. . . . .

There should be much, much more of this.

[Politicub]

23. Great idea but

Horrible branding.

A rolling jubilee sounds like something you would see at a Pentecostal church. Or in Colorado. Hey Oh!

[mountain grammy]

36. What is a jubilee?

Jubilee comes from many faith traditions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. A jubilee is an event in which all debts are canceled and all those in bondage are set free. It worked in Biblical times and it can still work today. For example, a kind of jubilee happened in Iceland after the 2008 economic crisis: instead of bailing out their banks, Iceland canceled a percentage of mortgage debt. What these examples show is that debts are just a promise which can - and should - be renegotiated or canceled when the circumstances warrant. Strike Debt believes that now is the time for a jubilee for the 99%.

This is an excellent organization, well worthy of any and all donations. http://rollingjubilee.org/

[niyad]

46. thank you for that wonderful information. and for the reminder of how iceland handled the

2008 crisis. imagine--jailing the bankers, not the victims of the crisis!!

[valerief]

48. They're not accepting donations as of 12/31/2013. nt

[IronLionZion]

41. John Oliver's show copied the idea from Rolling Jubilee

and didn't credit them because of their association with occupy.

http://blog.debtcollective.org/whos-afraid-of-occupy-hbos-john-oliver-erases-debt-resistance/

It's great that the show is helping people, but they should have credited the people who have been doing it for years shared their information and operating model.

.

[underpants]

54. Marking. Thanks.

[modestybl]

5. Almost as much as Bill got paid to help bring more students into debt...

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-31/hillary-and-bill-clinton-paid-43-million-in-federal-taxes

"Since 2010, Bill Clinton brought in just short of $16.5 million for his role as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company. He left the position earlier this year weeks after his wife launched her campaign...."

[zappaman]

7. Awwwww

Hats off to John Oliver!

[Mark 750]

6. Thanks John

Great show too!

[ToxMarz]

8. I think our government should pass a law

that the people who have this debt must be allowed the opportunity to settle the debt for the amount it is being offered to debt collectors before it can be sold.

[valerief]

34. If we had Medicare for All, people wouldn't get into this debt to begin with. nt

[pberq]

43. Exactly. There are no medical bankruptcies in countries with universal coverage

Number of People Who Go Bankrupt Every Year Because of Medical Bills

[TexasBushwhacker]

44. I've never understood why insurance companies

can negotiate for lower prices but individuals cannot. People without insurance or who have high deductibles and copays are charged an inflated "sticker price" considerably higher than insurance companies and Medicare/Medicaid pay.

I did have a doctor in Austin when I was uninsured who let me pay what she would get from Medicare.

[DetlefK]

9. Oh Shit!!! :D :D :D

It should be pointed out: That debt gets sold for cents on the dollar because those debt collectors KNOW these people can't pay the debt.

Out of those 9000 people they only would have needed to get money out of a 100 or so to turn a profit.

[felix_numinous]

10. What a great humanitarian

how many billionaires could do the same without even feeling it.

[MillennialDem]

14. All the debt in the US could be forgiven this way by billionaires... ALL of it if they bought for

those pennies on the dollar without them even feeling it.

[felix_numinous]

17. And the trillions overseas

just being hoarded while people die and work in shit jobs, the disconnect has reached obscene levels.

[Stellar]

11. Oprah , should top that...why? nt.

[Initech]

15. That was a joke.

[Cirque du So-What]

19. ...

[Glassunion]

50. Because up until the airing of John's show, Oprah held the title for the largest

give away on TV. When she gave everyone in the audience a new car... The total came in at about 8 million.

John's show forgave a hair under 15 million in debt. Right before John pressed the big red button to signal the debt forgiveness, he let out a lighthearted "f*ck you Oprah", because he was topping her long held record.

[Stellar]

51. Whoa...thank you for sharing.

[AllyCat]

12. Buying debt is a scandal. What a travesty the whole thing is.

[MariaThinks]

13. Wonderful Man.

[DiehardLiberal]

16. Hoping this leads to much more light on this wretched business.

John is a hero!

[Scalded Nun]

20. Rather than welfare for corporations

Think of how much bad debt the gov't could buy and forgive.

Of course, as soon as it is discovered that the gov't is buying the bad debt the cost will skyrocket.

But for right now, it would be a great thing to do.

[pbmus]

29. This is gonna happen very soon with student debt...

[appalachiablue]

21. K & R. Thank you Jon Oliver, what a good man to help with this regressive, cruel system.

Bravo!

[Feeling the Bern]

22. Wow. That was amazing. This is a jewel of a man! Thank you Jon Stewart for finding him

[Enthusiast]

24. This is no way to run a health care system.

[Gabi Hayes]

25. dirty filthy democratic socialist nazi fascist!

almost forgot....Isiscist terra-ist!

put him on the no-fly list immediately

http://gothamist.com/2015/11/23/john_oliver_refugees.php

[SpankMe]

26. I don't like how the CNN article called this a "stunt".

John Oliver actually did this. It was no stunt.

I think we should have an ongoing GoFundMe account accepting donations that are then spent buying debt at cents on the dollar and then forgiving all this debt. This sounds like a worthy philanthropic cause.

[pbmus]

28. Excellent idea

i

[Festivito]

31. What's wrong with "something unusual done to attract attention?" Nothing.

Somewhat ironically, CNN's use of stunt was itself a stunt.

Hope it backfires.

[NobodyInParticular]

38. Great post!

I wish I could recommend it...

[IronLionZion]

42. Rolling Jubilee has been doing this for years

and forgave over $30 million of soul crushing medical and student debt

http://rollingjubilee.org/

http://rollingjubilee.org/transparency/#debtbuys

[pbmus]

27. Thanks to John Oliver ....

[tanyev]

30. I worked a few years in a county records department.

We often got people coming in who were being harassed by some debt collection agency for a hospital that had closed down years previously. If there was a case that had gone to court we could usually find that for them, but nobody knew where the records of the actual hospital had landed. It was a mess, and I felt terrible for them.

[valerief]

32. If it weren't for comedians, we wouldn't get ANY real news on U.S. TV.

I LURRRRV John Oliver!!!

[ET Awful]

33. Not to push it John, but maybe, just maybe

You could stop reporting it to the credit bureaus altogether for these folks as well?

If your "collection agency" doesn't report it, they no longer have a collection on their report and the ease of their getting a job, auto insurance, future credit etc. greatly improves.

Now see, if you continue to report, it stays for 7 years as a paid collection, if you don't report it, it vanishes. There may still be some residual reporting from the original source of the debt, but that can be gotten rid of far easier.

[Thespian2]

35. Yep...gotta' give it to John Oliver...

great way to help some very needy people...

[killbotfactory]

37. And it only cost him 60 grand.

Isn't that obscene?

[Initech]

39. Yeah that was the most mind blowing part!

[Skittles]

40. love, love, LOVE John Oliver!

[UglyGreed]

45. Yes wonderful that

people need to be bailed out by comedians since healthcare for all is Unicorns and rainbows. Mercia!!!!!!!

[lunatica]

47. I watched that

He definitely made history and he did it with bells, whistles and confetti!

[NaturalHigh]

49. Cool.

[sarcasmo]

52. Kick

[underpants]

53. My recording ended 2 minutes early

Thanks