John Oliver tackles GOP’s health plan: ‘People are going to be hurt by this bill’

Late-night host John Oliver went after the GOP’s ObamaCare repeal and replacement plan during Sunday’s episode of “Last Week Tonight,” saying that “TrumpCare” would hurt Trump’s own supporters the most. 

“Essentially it seems people on both sides see AHCA as just being s—y ObamaCare,” Oliver said after showing multiple clips of politicians and pundits saying the bill is “dead on arrival.”

“People are going to be hurt by this bill,” he said.

{mosads}House Republican leaders unveiled the long-awaited bill, the American Health Care Act, last week. It would roll back the ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion after 2019, end the mandate that everyone buy health insurance, and focus on helping people afford insurance through tax credits based on age.

“This plan is literally taking taking money from the poor and giving it to the very rich,” Oliver said.

Oliver aired a clip showing a lengthy provision in the bill that would work to remove wealthy lottery winners from government health insurance coverage, joking: “The urgent matter of what if one poor person suddenly becomes less poor.”

The host went on to say that the bill doesn’t line up with Trump’s campaign pledges.

“The bottom line is a lot of the things Trump promised on the campaign trail are not in the bill because the AHCA is being presented as a budget bill, which can simply be passed by a Senate majority. Anything that’s a non-budget policy change needs 60 votes to beat a filibuster,” Oliver said.

“This bill is in all likelihood all Trump can get passed to replace Obamacare,” he added, “so it is f—ing important everyone understands what is in it.”

Oliver said that to help Trump understand the bill, the show was taking out an ad in the D.C. area to air during Fox News “Fox and Friends” — a program Trump has praised — using an elderly cowboy figure to explain it.