On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver delved into the many issues with hospice care in the US. Doing so is “an almost offensive parody of this show”, he acknowledged. “If somebody else did that, it would genuinely be hurtful. But I promise this is worth talking about.”
There are “lots of dedicated people work with hospices, providing huge relief for dying patients and their families, particularly those who want to remain at home”, such as the 1.8 million Americans who received end-of-life care at home last year.
But like anything, hospice is subject to fraud, mismanagement and abuse. One government report estimated that hospice’s inappropriate billing costs Medicare hundreds of millions per year.
Oliver first looked into the origins of hospice care in the US, which was imported from England in the mid-20th century. “I know the British exporting a new way to die sounds like the perfect slogan for over 400 years of colonialism,” he joked, “but in this case it was genuinely a good thing.”
