John Oliver writes off $15 million of medical debt

New York: Some 9,000 people who can't or won't pay delinquent medical bills are singing John Oliver's praises.

The HBO host illustrated a story about practices in an industry that purchases the records of people delinquent in bills and attempts to collect them by acquiring $15 million worth of unpaid medical bills. He got them for only $60,000, and forgave the debts.

On his show on Sunday night, Oliver claimed it was television's biggest giveaway since an Oprah Winfrey episode where the talk-show host gave cars to her television audience. Oliver's show, "Last Week Tonight," engages in a form of investigative comedy, and showed the abuses of some of these companies who try to collect on debts.