‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Books Week Of “Celebrity Samaritan” Hosts After Son Billy’s Latest Heart Surgery
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live will have guest hosts this week after Kimmel’s son Billy had a scheduled, successful heart surgery Monday morning.
While Kimmel spends the week with his family, “celebrity samaritans” handle hosting duties for one night each: Chris Pratt on Monday, followed by Tracee Ellis Ross, Neil Patrick Harris, and Melissa McCarthy.
Last May, Kimmel revealed his newborn son’s first open heart surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles when he was 3 days old. That after a nurse at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center noticed the three-hour-old baby had a heart murmur and was slightly purple.
After reading a list of people he’d like to thank at the two hospitals, ABC, parent Disney, etc, Kimmel added, “I want to say one other thing,” and jumped into the political fray about GOP moves to end Obamacare:
“We were brought up to believe we live in the greatest country in 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 was a good chance you’d never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition … and if your parents didn’t have insurance, you night not live long enough to even get denied because of a pre-existing condition.
“If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it should not matter how much money you make,” Kimmel said, choking up. “I think that’s something, whether you’re Republican or a Democrat … we all agree on that, right? Whatever your party … we need to make sure people who are supposed to represent us, people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly.
“Let’s stop this nonsense. This isn’t football; there are no teams,” Kimmel scolded. “No parent should ever have to decide if can afford to save their child’s life. It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.”
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