'Must-Watch TV': Comedian John Oliver Makes Case for Medicare for All, Debunks Right-Wing Talking Points

Such an excellent show! John Oliver is brilliant! I’m deeply grateful to John Oliver and to all who expose the truth of how massively propagandized we are to act against our own best interests and those of our fellow sisters and brothers here in America. This cruel and brutal madness must be seen for what it is and stopped! 30,000 people dying every year and 500,000 going bankrupt due to medical expenses they cannot pay for is heartless and insane! My family in Canada — and all those who live in the rest of the developed world where healthcare is a human right — know the inhumanity of the American healthcare system that’s based on greed and profit rather than caring for our fellow human beings. May we wake up and transform our ourselves and our nation NOW! — Molly

"The American healthcare system gives you so many choices as to how you want to get f***ed. Under Medicare for All, that scenario would not happen."

By

Jake Johnson

Comedian John Oliver used a 20-minute segment of his popular HBO show "Last Week Tonight" on Sunday to make the case for Medicare for All and ridiculed incremental alternatives like Pete Buttigieg's public option plan, which Oliver colorfully described as a "shit sandwich with guac."

"You can get fucked by taking an ambulance, you can get fucked by going to the wrong hospital, or you can get fucked by the going to the right hospital and getting the wrong surgeon," Oliver said of the current private insurance system. "The American healthcare system gives you so many choices as to how you want to get fucked. Under Medicare for All, that scenario would not happen."

Oliver described the Medicare for All plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, as not only "more generous than most private insurance plans," but "more generous than the policy of any single-payer country on Earth."

"And there is a good case to be made that even if national spending [on healthcare] wound up higher," Oliver added, "we might wind up wasting less" under Medicare for All.

Oliver summarized and dismissed common objections to Medicare for All—from supposedly prohibitive costs to claims that single-payer would eliminate choice—and pointed out that Republican pundits and politicians are not the only ones attacking the proposal.

"Some Democrats have reservations too," said Oliver. "Pete Buttigieg, for instance, prefers a different concept to Medicare for All, but with a catchily similar name."

"What Buttigieg is referring to when he says 'Medicare for All Who Want It' is basically the public option," said Oliver. "It would definitely be an improvement over what we have now. The problem is it would leave so much of our current insurance infrastructure, with all of its problems, intact. So that's kind of like being offered either a shit sandwich or a slightly smaller shit sandwich with guac."

Oliver noted the major political obstacles to achieving Medicare for All but said the potential benefits of single-payer would far outweigh any risks.

"I get that big change is scary. It is human nature to prefer the devil you know over an uncertain alternative. But the devil you know is still a devil," said Oliver. "Since moving to America, I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't have at least one insurance industry horror story. At this point, the U.S. national anthem should just be everyone in a stadium yelling about their insurance company for two-and-a-half minutes."

Please go here for the original article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/17/must-watch-tv-comedian-john-oliver-makes-case-medicare-all-debunks-right-wing?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook