Comedian Jimmy Kimmel told Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy he must stick to his pledge that the bottom line for any healthcare reform must be to pass the “Jimmy Kimmel test” — that coverage is available to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.
“Reminder for Sen @BillCassidy: Kimmel test is ‘No family should be denied medical care, emerg or otherwise, because they can’t afford it.'” Kimmel tweeted Sunday. He also retweeted someone else’s opinion of the bill that stated it would fail the Kimmel test.
Reminder for Sen @BillCassidy: Kimmel test is “No family should be denied medical care, emerg or otherwise, because they can’t afford it”
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) June 25, 2017
Kimmel was apparently reacting to Cassidy’s appearance on the show “Face the Nation” Sunday in which he said he was still not certain if he would support the Republican Senate leadership’s bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
“Right now, I am undecided. There are things in this bill that adversely affect my state, that are peculiar to my state.. but if those can be addressed, I will (vote for it). If they can’t, I won’t,” Cassidy said. The senator is one of several lawmakers still on the fence about the legislation and whose support will be crucial to its passage.
Kimmel injected himself into the healthcare debate earlier this year with a tearful account on his late-night program of his child’s struggles to get care for a congential heart condition. Kimmel said he’s lucky to be able to afford to do whatever it took to save his son, but worried about what would happen to other families not in the same situation
“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” he said.
Shortly after that monologue aired, Cassidy said on CNN the”Jimmy Kimmel test” must be the baseline for any reform. “Would the child born with a congenital heart disease be able to get everything she or he would need in that first year of life … even if they go over a certain amount?” he said.
