Last Week Tonight took aim at yet another predatory aspect of the United States healthcare system on Sunday: Medicare Advantage, a plan which covers more than half of U.S. seniors. During Medicare open enrollment, hundreds of thousands of healthcare plan ads run starring older famous people like Joe Namath, William Shatner, and Jimmie “JJ” Walker, and Meredith Viera. But while these ads are “often framed as being about Medicare, they’re actually promoting” Medicare Advantage, which is “private insurance with all the problems of private insurance, but applied to a more vulnerable population,” John Oliver explained.
You may be able to guess where this is going: Last Week Tonight made its own ad, one that is “technically accurate,” and recruited Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally to star in it. The pair play an older couple who have been advised they can get additional benefits with Medicare Advantage, which “has all the letters of the word Medicare, but none of the actual Medicare.” The advantages include visits from nurses who will come to your house to “diagnose us with a bunch of diseases that we don’t have and that our doctors don’t even know anything about.” In keeping with Oliver’s warning not to follow through on any of the bunk TV ads, his parody ends with a message saying, “Don’t call this or any other number on your screen. Medicare Advantage is not traditional Medicare. It’s administered by private insurance. Your doctor may or may not be covered.”
Mullally gives an incredible physical performance in the fake Last Week Tonight ad, while Offerman gets a fun bonus offscreen. If you do call the number on your screen, you’ll hear a “Toll-Free Easter Egg,” which is a message from Offerman saying, “Hello there. First, I think you were explicitly told not to call this number, but you’ve clearly done it anyway. So to make use of this time, here are a few woodworking tips.” In typical fashion, the Parks And Recreation alum gives a few minutes of advice before signing off: “Please never call this number again. Goodbye.” You can check out the full message over on LateNighter.
