John Oliver's Last Week Tonight

John Looks at Emergency Medical Services, specifically how they are underfunded.

You lost!

Fair warning: this episode is rather NSFW. Moreso than usual, in any case.

You may want to skip this one altogether if you live in Brussels.

Edited by Redmess on Aug 2nd 2021 at 7:30:54 PM

Optimism is a duty.

...color me surprised that EMS isn't considered essential

I think it's just another outflow of America's parasitical healthcare system. I have plenty of American friends who refuse to or can't go to a GP because of the costs, which is also something that surprised me.

Optimism is a duty.

Yeah, that's sadly a thing here. And for the ambulance thing, where I work a worker who had a couple of collapses had his family ask that our workplace no longer call ambulances for him. He was union, so has health insurance and a living wage.

It's where you can tell things are messed up, but it takes some pulling back of the covers to see how/why it's just so messed up.

The entire concept of non-selectable medical treatment being “out of network” is one of the craziest things about US healthcare.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

As usual, I'm unsurprised most of the seeds for this were planted during the Reagan Administration.

Even in Canada, where we have public health care, I think there’s a charge for ambulances.

EDIT: Yep. In Ontario it’s $45 if your use of an ambulance is deemed medically necessary by a doctor and if you’re a resident of Ontario, and $240 if you aren’t a resident or it isn’t deemed necessary.

Edited by Galadriel on Aug 3rd 2021 at 3:11:20 AM

And it's still relatively cheap compared to getting an ambulance in the US.

Burning love!

How much are they in the US?

In Oliver's segment, he mentioned bills in the thousands of dollars.

US healthcare is shitty. I legit got assigned a dentist by my dental insurance and was unable to keep my dentist if I wanted to use my insurance for him.

And dental procedures are almost always considered non-essential beyond like, removing a rotten tooth, so be prepared to pay through the nose for it.

I remember the last time I had a major procedure done, it was annoyingly expensive but not too horrible, but the bill said something entirely different than what I got. When I asked them about it, they're just like "yeah, because that procedure is covered by your insurance while the one you actually got isn't." "...you mean the procedure that I needed to get if I ever wanted to eat solid food again? That wasn't covered?" "It's technically a vanity procedure."

Yeah, our liberals have taken dentistry out of the standard health care package as well, so now we have to pay more for that, since it is no longer covered by basic health care.

Optimism is a duty.

Apparently teeth are not part of the human body.

Edited by Kayeka on Aug 4th 2021 at 2:06:24 AM

Clearly that sort of politician thinks people only go to the dentist to have their teeth whitened or have other unnecessary cosmetic procedures.

It's basically austerity as applied to dentistry.

Optimism is a duty.

Yup, and attempts at trying to reform the healthcare system keep getting shot down.

Judge the situation for yourself? I thought that was what John was here for.

Optimism is a duty.

I'm surprised he isn't talking about Afghanistan. But I'm sure that will pop up soon enough.

Optimism is a duty.

It was filmed Saturday.

Everyone should already know how I feel about decentralized and free-for-all cybersecurity. Well, ransomware is, in my mind, the most powerful argument against letting every single business and organization fend for itself.

Heck, even the criminals have figured out the value of cooperation because they actually care about getting paid over some kind of weird "BUT MAH FWWEEDUM" ideals.

Edited by Fighteer on Aug 16th 2021 at 7:47:07 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Oh look, it's the dark side of X-as-a-Service. Wasn't expecting that.

Funny because I've been editing texts on that subject for two weeks now.

Optimism is a duty.

Last Week Tonight is suing the USCIS over not responding to a FOI request.

Apparently the US Citizens and Immigration Service had been playing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" at naturalization ceremonies without paying any royalties. Last Week Tonight asked for records relating to the settlement with Greenwood, but did not get a response.

Edited by alanh on Aug 16th 2021 at 5:55:47 AM

Tonight's episode was mostly an autopsy of the Afghanistan debacle. It was pretty heavy.

Then his final segment was about Jim Adler, that lawyer who yells so much in his commercials. I live in Texas, and I've been seeing Adler's commercials on television for years, so the part of that segment that was strangest to me was footage of Adler from a testimonial video he made, where he's actually talking like a normal person.

Nach jeder Ebbe kommt die Flut.