While everyone else was busy tripping over themselves to find new ways to write about how Donald Trump apparently fabricated his tweeted story about turning down John Oliver’s request to appear on Last Week Tonight (Oliver says such a request never took place), the team behind the HBO voice of reason was far more concerned with making sure people paid attention to an actually imminent election. Oliver is specifically concerned with the future of expanded Medicaid benefits, citing several key elections among the 20 states that bafflingly decided not to expand Medicaid, thereby providing health coverage to those who need it most.
"Basically, for relatively little of their own money, states could cover all of their poorest citizens," Oliver says, citing one of the crucial components of the Affordable Care Act. "It was an exceptionally favorable deal, but guess what many states chose to do?" If you guessed "Act against the interest of the people who need it most!" then, wow, you’re a tremendous guesser.
Oliver reserves the bulk of his characteristically thorough segment for Kentucky, a state that has apparently "seen the nation’s steepest drop in uninsured residents" since adopting a Medicaid expansion plan. "Only an idiot would try to undo that," Oliver proposes, "which brings me to gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin."
In addition to some downright charming Bevin blasting, Oliver also delivers this distinctly Oliver-esque gem:
"Healthcare is like a pair of gym shorts. Even if it covers nearly all it’s supposed to, you’re still left with some problematic gaps. Terrible things can happen."
