John Oliver buy $15 mil worth of medical debt for $60k, then forgives it

queue the "don't go into debt that you can't pay back" posts

Actually, the medical debt had already been paid off.

The hospitals passed it onto other patients and probably got some money from the govt, through your taxes. Utilities, salaries, equipment, all of that stuff was eventually paid for, just not by the people who used the services.

Oliver simply bought whatever right was left to collect on that debt. Considering the price he paid for the debt, the odds that it would ever have been collected was very, very low.

quote:

---

queue the "don't go into debt that you can't pay back" posts

---

What would be wrong with the truth of don't borrow money you can't pay back?
It worked for many people for many years, including myself.

Has there been a single issue ever where this man did not advocate for more government control and regulation?

Regarding predatory lending, please read this:

LINK

quote:

---

The New York Times is again on the warpath against what it calls “predatory lending.”

Just what is predatory lending? It is lending that charges a higher interest rate than people like those at the New York Times approve of. According to such thinking — or lack of thinking — the answer is to have the government set an interest rate ceiling at a level that will be acceptable to third parties like the New York Times.

Low-income people often get short-terms loans when they run out of money to meet some exigency of the moment. The interest rates charged on such unsecured loans to people with low credit scores are usually higher than on loans to people whose higher incomes and better credit histories make them less of a risk.

Crusaders against such loans often make the interest rate charged seem even higher by quoting these interest rates in annual terms, even when the loan is actually repayable in a matter of weeks. It is like saying that a $100 a night hotel room costs $36,500 a year, when virtually nobody rents a hotel room for a year.

Because those who make unsecured short-term loans are usually poor and often ill-educated, the political left can cast the high interest rates as unconscionably taking advantage of vulnerable people.

Editorial demagoguery against “predatory” lending might well be called predatory journalism — taking advantage of other people’s ignorance of economics to score ideological points, and promote still more expansion of government powers that limit the options of poor people especially, who have few options already.

---

Studies show that these "predators" have NO HIGHER RATE OF RETURN ON LOANS than banks in higher income areas. Why? Because the risk is so much higher.

Putting a fricking price ceiling on interest rates has been shown to lead to a massive decrease in lending institutions in low income areas. That doesn't sound very pro-poor to me.

quote:

---

That is complete bullshite. I have had clients get harrassed over medical debt many many years afterward. The hospital do not always write debt off they just sell it

---

Nothing you said counters what he said.

The hospital has to sell it at a much lower price then what they're owed due to the probability of the buyer not being able to collect. So that difference between what they were owed and what they sold it for gets written off.

The services never got completely paid to the hospital like he said though. The hospital still sees a net loss from the whole transaction. It's just less of a loss then what they would've seen had they done nothing.


What's interesting is this forgiveness of debt is actually tax-free to the people who had the debt when usually this would've produced taxable income to them.