HBO’s John Oliver was in a bit of a difficult position for Sunday’s edition of Last Week Tonight. The previous week he suggested that President Trump was on the verge of putting the country into the middle of another Middle East disaster, but that prediction didn’t come true, so he did the best thing he could: hope everyone forgot that he said he would have more to say about that and instead attack the GOP for putting Medicaid work requirements in their Big Beautiful Bill.
After playing a clip of Trump saying the reconciliation bill wouldn’t affect Medicaid, Oliver claimed, “The math just doesn't support those claims. As one analysis puts it: ‘Major Medicaid cuts are the only way to meet House budget resolution requirements.’ And the big way this bill tries to do that is by adding ‘work requirements’ for many low-income recipients who got coverage under Medicaid expansion—effectively removing a lot of them from the rolls.
At least Oliver mentioned the work requirements because that’s more than his late night contemporaries have managed to do.
Oliver then teed up another video, this one of Speaker Mike Johnson, by lamenting, “Basically, under the bill, to get Medicaid, they’d have to prove they've worked, volunteered, or went to school for 80 hours a month. That alone is projected to cause over five million Americans to lose coverage by the end of the decade. Though, to hear Mike Johnson tell it, that's not a problem, because they're just targeting one specific group.”
In the clip, Johnson told CNN, “You don't want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who’s just trying to make it, that's what Medicaid is for, not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games. We’re going to find those guys and we’re going to send them back to work.”
Oliver reacted by quipping, “Okay, ‘29-year-old males sitting on the couch playing video games’? How is it possible that Mike Johnson always sounds so old and out of touch, while also managing to look like a 12-year-old who dressed up as Stephen Colbert for Halloween?”
It is fair to ask if Oliver even read the bill, because he then claimed, “The problem with that argument is that most Medicaid enrollees are working. The most recent data shows that nearly two in three work. And most of the rest have a disability, are caring for family members, or are attending school, and yet Republicans won’t stop painting lurid scenarios of Medicaid freeloaders.”
Both the House and Senate texts have exemptions for all three of those, so what exactly is Oliver freaking out over? Maybe Johnson’s idea of a couch-riding video gamer isn’t that far off after all.
Here is a transcript for the June 29 show:
HBO Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
6/29/2025
11:08 PM ET
JOHN OLIVER: Also, the math just doesn't support those claims. As one analysis puts it: "Major Medicaid cuts are the only way to meet House budget resolution requirements." And the big way this bill tries to do that is by adding “work requirements" for many low-income recipients who got coverage under Medicaid expansion — effectively removing a lot of them from the rolls.
Basically, under the bill, to get Medicaid, they’d have to prove they've worked, volunteered, or went to school for 80 hours a month. That alone is projected to cause over five million Americans to lose coverage by the end of the decade. Though, to hear Mike Johnson tell it, that's not a problem, because they're just targeting one specific group.
MIKE JOHNSON: You don't want able-bodied workers on a program that is intended, for example, for single mothers with two small children who’s just trying to make it, that's what Medicaid is for, not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games. We’re going to find those guys and we’re going to send them back to work.
OLIVER: Okay, "29-year-old males sitting on the couch playing video games"? How is it possible that Mike Johnson always sounds so old and out of touch, while also managing to look like a 12-year-old who dressed up as Stephen Colbert for Halloween? The problem with that argument is that most Medicaid enrollees are working. The most recent data shows that nearly two in three work. And most of the rest have a disability, are caring for family members, or are attending school, and yet Republicans won’t stop painting lurid scenarios of Medicaid freeloaders.
