Berated by John Oliver, Health Insurance Exec Sues

A former health insurance boss is suing John Oliver for defamation, arguing the Last Week Tonight host "knowingly manipulated" his words to make millions of viewers believe he'd illegally denied care to a quadriplegic. In an episode on Medicaid released April 14, 2024, Oliver described the case of Louis Facenda Jr., a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy in Iowa whose in-home care program was disrupted with cuts to Medicaid services, the Guardian reports. Oliver first aired an interview in which Facenda's mother said he'd spent hours in dirty diapers as a result. Oliver then aired footage of Dr. Brian Morley, the former medical director of AmeriHealth Caritas, testifying in a 2017 administrative hearing about, in the host's words, a "similar" patient.

"People have bowel movements every day where they don't completely clean themselves, and we don't fuss over [them] too much," Morley said. "People are allowed to be dirty ... I would allow him to be a little dirty for a couple of days." Oliver noted he initially thought the quote must've been taken out of context because "there is no way a doctor ... would testify in a hearing that he thinks it's OK if people have s--- on them for days." But "we got the full hearing, and ... he said it, he meant it," Oliver continued. In the lawsuit filed last week in New York, Morley argues the show edited his comment to remove a sentence in which Morley said medical safety issues weren't a concern "in this specific case." He claims he was speaking about a "hypothetical average person, who is independently mobile," per the Los Angeles Times.

The suit, which is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $75,000 from Oliver and show producers Partially Important Productions, claims Last Week Tonight intentionally made viewers believe Morley had made statements about and illegally denied care to "Louis and/or the alleged 'similar' individual subject." It also takes issue with Oliver's comment: "F--- that doctor with a rusty canoe. I hope he gets tetanus of the balls." Morley argues this was "feigned outrage ... fabricated for ratings and profits at the expense of Dr Morley's reputation and personal well-being," per the Guardian. Oliver followed up the comment with this one: "If he has a problem with my language there, I'd say I'm allowed to be dirty." His rep didn't respond to a request for comment, per the Times. (More John Oliver stories.)