John Oliver Creates Fake Church To Drag Shady Religious Health Care Sharing Programs

Health care sharing programs sound like a good idea on the surface. They are groups that have people coming together and paying each other’s medical bills. Who wouldn’t want to have that in your back pocket? But you know there’s something wrong with it when John Oliver is covering it during Last Week Tonight.

Case in point, most health care sharing programs are ministry-based and have an estimated 1 million members today. In Florida, because it’s always Florida, they’ve even gone so far as loosening restrictions when it comes to these health care sharing ministry networks (HCSM’s) where they can now “require that they share a common set of ethical or religious beliefs.”

Say your HCSM finds out you’re gay, are sexually active before marriage, or like to smoke or drink? They can use those reasons on a whim to not cover your expenses, no matter how long you’ve been in the HCSM, with no repercussions. Basically any pre-existing condition or this week’s morality reason, they can deny coverage and leave you out to dry when they’re not denying claims for simple things like mental health or routine checkups.

So, John Oliver decided to get in on HCSM by creating a spinoff of Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption, a church that he set up in 2015 to expose U.S. tax laws used by predatory preachers, with Our Lady of Perpetual Health. He even brought back Rachel Dratch, who appeared in the original segment, to advertise for JohnnyCare, which “is to health insurance what Splenda is to sugar.”

This fake network, geared at raising awareness of HCSMs in Florida, “is an affordable, health insurance-like product that is not health insurance.” On their website FreedomFromHealthCare.org, they advertise themselves as “a collaborative community of 5,000 like-minded, healthy Floridians who are rejecting big health insurance companies and Obamacare.”

And for the low price of $1.99, you can join in on JohnnyCare and get your own tiny first aid kit, complete with 3 bandaids! And with JohnnyCare, you receive medical care, receive a bill from your health care provider, pay that bill on your own, and then don’t bother JohnnyCare. Its 4 simple steps are easy to follow for the first 5,000, because that’s how many cases Oliver bought.

So, get yours today and have sweet bragging rights that come with owning limited edition Last Week Tonight bandaids. Because that’s the only thing you’re going to get with this HCSM from Our Lady of Perpetual Health and those like it.

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—