Jimmy Kimmel emotionally describes how his infant son almost died last week from a pre-existing condition

Jimmy Kimmel's wife, Molly, gave birth to their second child last week, and William (Billy) Kimmel had a serious heart disease. "I try not to get emotional, but it was a scary story," Kimmel said on Monday's Kimmel Live. "And before I go into it, I want you to know it has a happy ending, okay? So when I'm telling this, don't get too upset — leave that to me." Kimmel choked up several times telling how Billy's heart problems were discovered and the extraordinary steps the nurses and doctors at Cedars-Sinai and Children's Hospital Los Angeles took to save his son's life.

Kimmel thanked lots of people, and he threw in some humor, including a nod to his most famous celebrity feud. "We had atheists praying for us," he said. "We had people who do not believe in God praying to Him. And I hate to even say it: Even that son of a bitch Matt Damon sent flowers." But in the last few minutes, he dove into the fights over health care gripping Washington, and he tried to do it as a father and a human being.

He started out thanking Congress for adding $2 billion to the National Institutes of Health budget, but mostly he wanted to talk about pre-existing conditions. "Before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease like my son was, there's a good chance you would never be able to get health insurance because you had a pre-existing condition," Kimmel said. "If your parents didn't have medical insurance, you might not even live long enough to get denied because of a pre-existing condition. If your baby is going to die, and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make. I think that's something that, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?"

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Congress is considering health-care legislation now that would potentially allow insurers to price people with pre-existing conditions out of the market. "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," Kimmel said, crying. "I saw a lot of families there, and no parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child's life. It just shouldn't happen, not here." Watch below. Peter Weber

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