Hours after HBO’s Last Week Tonight officially refuted Donald Trump’s claim that he was invited to be on the show, host John Oliver turned his attention to take on the problems surrounding Medicaid benefits, managing to tie in a few key 2016 candidates in the process.
“Basically, for relatively little of their own money, states could cover all of their poorest citizens,” Oliver says, making reference to the original proposals of subsidies under Obamacare. “It was an exceptionally favorable deal, but guess what many states chose to do?” The clip smash cuts immediately to former Texas Governor Rick Perry who says, “Texas will not be participating in Medicaid expansion,” followed by a litany of other GOP candidates following suit.
One of those candidates shown is current GOP Presidential candidate Bobby Jindal, and he is not the only name in the 2016 race who Oliver manages to tie in to the conversation. He says, “The frequent argument for states refusing Medicaid expansion is that they can’t bear the increase cost, but it is worth noting that to their credit, even fiscally conservative Republican Governors… did expand Medicaid in their states despite being firm opponents of Obamacare.” Two of the Republicans mentioned in the segment are Ohio Governor John Kasich and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Oliver focused on how the issue of Medicaid will play a key role in several state elections this week, namely in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Virginia.
[“source-mediaite’]
