During his opening monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Monday, host Jimmy Kimmel cried openly.
His eyes welled up first, as he described the recent birth of his weeks-old son. And then Kimmel struggled to speak, as he recounted how, within hours of Billy's birth, a nurse noticed that he was purple and whisked him away for observation.
"Now more doctors and nurses and equipment come in, and it's a terrifying thing," Kimmel said, the emotion obvious in his voice. "My wife is back in the recovery room, she has no idea what's going on, and I'm standing in a room full of worried-looking people—kind of like right now." The team discovered Billy had a congenital heart defect. He was rushed into emergency surgery.
"It was the longest three hours of my life," Kimmel said, teary-eyed. But the procedure was successful, and Billy has since recovered, though he'll need two more surgeries. Kimmel went on to thank the nurses and doctors (and friends and family) who've supported him and his wife, Molly McNearney. He eked out some thanks even for his arch-nemesis, Matt Damon. ("I hate to say it; even that son of a bitch Matt Damon sent flowers.")
But Kimmel acknowledged that while his son will likely be just fine, many families are still at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and suffering. And they depend on exactly the funds that President Trump proposed be cut from the federal budget. "[T]hank god our congressmen made a deal last night to not go along with that. They actually increased funding by $2 billion, and I applaud them for doing that," Kimmel said. "Because more than 40 percent of the people who would have been affected by those cuts to the National Institute of Health are children."
Kimmel, his voice cracking, continued:
"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. Before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there was a good chance you would never be able to get health insurance because you had a preexisting condition. You were born with a preexisting condition, and if your parents didn't have medical insurance, you might 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," Kimmel said, insisting that the issue shouldn't be divisive. "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. We need to care of each other."
Evidently struggling to get his words out, he concluded: "No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child's life. It just shouldn't happen. Not here."
