Sunday, June 27
· Recap of the Week – GOP blocks voting rights bill, “Italygate” conspiracy theory
o Great advice for Sen. Susan Collins, arguing that a voting rights bill would “limit the rights” of states to run their elections as her party continues working to whitewash the history of states using that “freedom” to limit people’s access to voting – “Like my barber/therapist tells me, ‘We can’t change history, we can only prevent it from happening again.’”
o John got into the wild twists and turns of Italygate, and that was fun, but he ultimately kept his ire focused on the elected representatives working to curtail voting rights on the grounds of bogus claims of election fraud – “The bullshit artists to really watch out for here aren’t the ones wearing gold bowties in homes they don’t live in.”
· And Now This – C-SPAN call-in comments
o Another delightful montage featuring “the most patient man in the world” – My favorite clip was the one of the caller who began with, “What topic are we speaking about, because I’m open to them all?”
· Main Story – Health care sharing ministries
o John’s summation of the way U.S. healthcare works – “Get sick, have your insurance deny you coverage, and then hope Debra Messing retweets your GoFundMe.”
o We looked at how health care sharing ministries work hard to make themselves seem like insurance, even though they’re not. This included one ministry tiering their memberships as Diamond/Sapphire/Emerald/Ruby, to mirror insurance tiers of Platinum/Gold/Silver/Bronze – I loved John’s indignation at rubies being the lowest tier and the full-throated defense that followed, ending with, “Eat your fucking hearts out, sapphires and emeralds, because you could literally never!”
o When we looked at ministries like Samaritan, which can deny virtually any claim it chooses on “moral grounds,” John posited that a better name might be “Samaritan: Not the good one, though, just a random one that might well leave you to die in the middle of the road.”
o John’s disdain was so satisfying here – “Oh right, it’s a contract written on your hearts! Figuratively, of course, since literally it’s not a contract.”
o While insurance companies are subject to regulations that require $80 out of every $100 collected to go towards care, health care sharing ministries don’t need to follow those rules – one ministry was found to put only $16 of every $100 towards care.
o To demonstrate how criminally easy it is to set up a health care sharing ministry, the show create one, because of course they did. I never fail to be impressed with Last Week Tonight’s righteous, impish audacity.
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