Back in May, Jimmy Kimmel made a very emotional and poignant announcement on his late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live. He and his wife had welcomed their son, who needed emergency surgery as soon as he was born. Jimmy and his wife were emotionally raw and struggling with the complexity of the situation, and Kimmel made the point that the situation would be a million times worse if they didn’t have healthcare, or if they had sh-tty healthcare. Kimmel spoke about all of this in the midst of what was then another Republican-led healthcare crisis, in which the majority of Republicans were trying so hard to figure out a way to jack affordable healthcare away from millions of people. Kimmel made a plea to Congress that no American should have to make these difficult medical decisions while worrying that the decisions could lead to bankruptcy.
Well, here we are in September and we’re in the midst of another Republican-led attempt to jack healthcare. The bill is called the Graham-Cassidy bill, named for Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. This bill is a monstrosity. It would gut Medicare, it would free insurance companies to refuse to cover prenatal care, birth control, natal care, prescription drug coverage and more. The Republicans are trying to jam this through in the next few days, with little to no debate, and no CBO scoring. So Jimmy Kimmel spoke out once again.
Kimmel is a mensch. He really lays it all out so well, so concisely, with no bulls–t. He says that Sen. Cassidy lied to him to his face, and that the bill fails the so-called “Jimmy Kimmel Test.” He speaks the truth: the Graham-Cassidy bill is an obscenity and they’re trying to jam it through the Senate this week. Please contact your senators yet again and let them know how you feel.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
So can insurance companies also refuse to cover ED meds and treatment in their plan?
@ Marion C, my first thought too. I bet Viagra & Cialis will be covered. Of course……..
So scary! I have state insurance b/c my job doesnt offer health care. I need my insurance. I would be physically and emotionally devastated without it. Why are they trying to take away natal care!?!? I get taking away prenatal care and any care involving those terrible godforsaken women but what do they have against babies!?!? <— sarcasm
What is this country and our government coming to!?
Call call and call some more. Apparently the calls have been low compared to this summer.
Again they killed the actual bipartisan bill to ram this through.
While they couldn’t have known about the hurricanes you can bet they are celebrating that people’s attention has been focused in so many other directions. Very appreciative my two senators will be voting against it.
I know I’m definitely suffering from outrage fatigue. The bills keep getting sh*ttier and sh*ttier and I just can’t function if I really let it all in, you know? It’s truly incomprehensible.
Call, write, email, send smoke signals…whatever you have to do to contact your senators and have to vote against this bill. I promise you people are going to die unnecessarily if this is passed. The hardest hit will be the handicapped, poor, and elderly.
Why are the congressman of KENTUCKY and LOUISIANA leading the charge on healthcare? That have some of the worst healthcare outcomes of any state! It’s abhorrent in KY. I work at the number 1 hospital here and I would still travel to Ohio and pay what is needed if it came to it. It’s that baad. These people have no leg to stand on. Oh except they are wealthy, corrupt, old white men. Feeling sick today about all this.
There appear to be chunks of money going to certain states if the bill passes, as an open bribe to get them to vote for it.
From the Washington Post
““Let’s get back to the basics of being conservative,” Graham said in a Saturday interview with Breitbart News. “We take the money that we would spend on Obamacare in Washington, and we block grant it to the states.”
What’s new, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, is a discrepancy in state-by-state funding that would be flattened out by the block grants. Most states used the ACA’s funding to expand Medicaid; some Republican-run states, liberated by the Supreme Court’s decision to make the funding optional, did not. As a result, 14 of the 15 states that would stand to gain from block grants are run by Republicans; Democratic megastates including California, New York and Massachusetts would lose billions of dollars, a feature both Graham and Cassidy have talked up to conservatives.”
I’m from Louisiana and this is actually NORMAL for someone like Cassidy. There have been recent articles and murmurs about Louisiana being a sick and dying state (it’s actually been dead for a while, it’s only recently that people have started to notice that the rotting corpse is starting to smell). Louisiana voters have long voted against their own interests Politicians like Cassidy & Jindal have made millions off of these types of shady deals, but the natural disasters, oil spills, and the mass exodus of people looking for something better has left nothing on the carcass for Cassidy and others here to pick off of so with “BABY FINGERS” in office as well as other scum backing him Cassidy and Graham see an opportunity outside of their states to continue what the carnage on a national level. Both of these guys are pretty much trying to kill millions of people while trying to keep most of the blood off of their hands
Honestly? Because people in Kentucky are too stupid to live, apparently. Trump’s speech was on TV last night at my work. At the end of it, everyone applauded and said he was the “Best speaker, ever.” I wanted to retch. All the people applauding him are on Medicare or Medicaid, btw.
I hate living in Kentucky sometimes.
202 224 3121
Also call your governor whose input may count
The Koch BRothers are behind this. They want those tax cuts.
@ Who ARE these people?, What do the Koch brothers have to do with this? A legitimate question. I live in Kansas (same state the Koch brothers live) & am curious.
The Koch brothers are among the richest men in the country. They have been bankrolling GOP campaigns for years now. They have an organization, ALEC, that is behind so many of the far right legislative proposals that have made their way around red states.
They have apparently told GOP members of Congress there will be no more money unless and until they repeal the ACA and pass “tax reform,” by which they mean massive tax cuts for corporations and the top tax bracket.
GOP members of Congress are literally selling out the American people, condemning millions to needless pain and suffering, financial ruin, and/or unnecessary death so they don’t lose out on that gravy train of campaign funding.
My husband died unexpectedly September 4. I found him on the couch not breathing. He didn’t want to tell me how bad things were because we couldn’t afford insurance. He didn’t want to bankrupt us. This didn’t have to happen. My mom died of cancer because she didn’t want to bankrupt my father, they couldn’t get insurance. Single payer. You better believe I’m contacting my reps. I’m a wreck without him.
i am very sorry to hear that.
Anastasia, sincere condolences to you. The US system is already pretty awful for such a rich country, and this bill seems to be designed to make it worse. I hope the few decent GOP people who stopped the last one do it again.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Thank you ladies. ♥️
I’m so sorry. That’s really sad.
Thank you, Jimmy Kimmel. You rock. You laid it out so concisely and gave this bill hell.
My heart breaks for the US, that after almost 60 years since that corrupt decision by Nixon to make health insurance a for-profit model, someone or some political party has not figured out what a horrible decision that was.
Imagine this scenario. A young husband and father of two collapses one day at work. He is diagnosed in the span of four months with a heart defect that requires the implementation of a pacemaker. He is also diagnosed with leukaemia because the tests for his heart condition discover lumps in his lymph nodes. Cut to seven years later. He is in the blush of good health. His pacemaker ticks away ensuring that he wakes and sleeps with no stress of possible sudden death. He has just finished his first, and possibly only, round of chemotherapy for his leukaemia, with a final check up saying that all signs of the cancer have been wiped out. He goes to the gym regularly, doing his part of working on his health, as recommended by his doctor. He has regular check ups, tests, appointments annually to maintain and monitor his conditions.
Costs to him personally. Zero.
Tax rate? Around 32% average. It’s the highest because he makes a good living. But we pay. And we pay gladly. We live in Canada.
We have a beautiful home. Two amazing kids, one in university and one in junior high. We are not struggling financially, but we work hard for what we earn, yet have plenty after taxes to enjoy a comfortable life.
This is what I wish for my neighbours to the south. The means to live a life with all the benefits and quality which our two countries currently enjoy. But that the US finally understand a single payer healthcare system works. Not 100%. But that at least almost 32 million citizens have equal access to a national healthcare network, without fear of financial devastation. I wish it for the US every time this debate comes up. I wish it again today.
@Teebee
Thank You!
You articulated so much of what I wish I could say, being Canadian, and having the healthcare system that we have. I, too, wish this for our friends South of the border.
My daughter has the same heart defects as Kimmel’s child. Her last surgery was $275k before insurance. You can be damn sure I’m lighting up the phones of my representatives.
The folks behind this bill are truly evil. Unbelievable!