Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel shared the personal, deeply moving story of his son’s birth, which happened last week. Shortly after his son William “Billy” John Kimmel was born, a nurse noticed a heart murmur and noted Billy’s color wasn’t right. Kimmel said experts were immediately brought in and it was determined Billy had heart disease and a dangerous heart defect. Kimmel’s newborn son underwent heart surgery only a few hours later.
Kimmel said he was moved by seeing all the families at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles and he became overwhelmed as he pivoted to talking about the Affordable Care Act: “if your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make.” A summary is below (via The Daily Beast):
“We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world,” Kimmel continued. “But until a few years ago, millions and millions of us had no access to health insurance at all. You know, before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease, like my son was, there’s a good chance you’d never be able to get health insurance, because you had a pre-existing condition.” And if your parents didn’t have insurance, he added, “You may not even live long enough to get denied because of your pre-existing condition.”
“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking again. “I think that’s something that whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?” His audience roared with approval.
Whatever party you belong to, Kimmel said, “We need to make sure that the people who represent us, and people are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly. Let’s stop with the nonsense. This isn’t football. There are no teams. We are the team. It’s the United States. Don’t let their partisan squabbles divide us on something every decent person wants.”
Watch Kimmel’s plea to save the Affordable Care Act below, and then pick up the phone and CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE AT (202) 224-3121.
Hear Kimmel tell the full harrowing story in the longer video below.