Billy Versus The Bill

It's no secret that Republicans are trying to quietly sneak the end of Obamacare through undetected after the very public collapse of the first two versions of the legislation.  But tt turns out that the most powerful voice against Trumpcare 3.0 (and its provisions to let states opt out of protecting people with pre-existing medical conditions) may be that of late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and his newborn son Billy.

In a heart-wrenching 13-minute monologue, Jimmy Kimmel opened up about his son’s heart condition, which was discovered just hours after his birth ten days ago. With tears in his eyes, the host described the harrowing ordeal, which started with a nurse noticing baby William John Kimmel’s color was off and ended with him being rushed into open-heart surgery.

Baby Billy is doing well, though he’ll need several more surgeries. Kimmel closed with a plea for politicians to make sure others have a similarly happy outcome, even if they aren’t born to wealthy parents. 

We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, 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. You were born with a preexisting condition. And if your parents didn’t have insurance, you may not even live long enough to get denied because of a preexisting condition.

If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make. I think that’s something that whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?

Kimmel said that regardless of party, “We need to make sure that the people who are supposed to represent us, people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly.”

Last night America saw just how callow and cruel our Republican "leaders" are.  maybe they'll choose to do something about them, not just today, but 18 months from now on election day too.