“Most of the congresspeople who vote on this bill probably won’t even read it. And they want us to do the same thing,” said comedian Jimmy Kimmel during a 7-minute late night monologue. “They want us to treat it like an iTunes service agreement. And this guy, Bill Cassidy, just lied right to my face.” Bill Cassidy is a US Senator from Louisiana who promised Kimmel in May that he would only support a new healthcare bill that expanded coverage and protected those with pre-existing conditions, even if they weren’t rich.
Kimmel said that Cassidy’s recent introduction of a healthcare bill in Congress, co-sponsored with Sen. Lindsey Graham, makes a liar out of Cassidy. While the bill ostensibly protects the pre-existing condition element of healthcare that was so essential to the Obamacare plan, it leaves a lot of people out of the loop, according to Kimmel. “[Cassidy] said he would only support a healthcare bill that made sure a child like mine would get the health coverage he needs,” Kimmel said, “no matter how much money his parents make.” But in reality the new bill guarantees that “your child with a pre-existing condition will get the care he needs if, and only if, his father is Jimmy Kimmel.” In other words, if he’s wealthy. Kimmel entered the healthcare debate passionately this spring, after his newborn child had severe medical problems requiring expensive care. Kimmel’s child is doing well. Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35 on ABC.
