Jimmy Kimmel shared a very personal story with viewers earlier this year about how when his son, Billy, was born, doctors discovered he had a condition that required emergency open-heart surgery. Billy is doing great now, but the experience left an emotional Kimmel wondering how in the United States, whether you live or die could hinge on how much money you have.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) later appeared on Kimmel's show, and told him he was going to enact the "Jimmy Kimmel Test," meaning families with kids like Billy shouldn't be denied health care and there shouldn't be any limits to how much insurance companies pay. "He got a lot of credit and attention for coming off like a rare, reasonable voice in the Republican Party when it came to health care," Kimmel said on Tuesday night's Jimmy Kimmel Live. But now Cassidy and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have made up their own health-care bill, which completely fails the Jimmy Kimmel Test — about 30 million people would lose coverage, states would decide if insurance companies can charge people more for pre-existing conditions and if they could enact lifetime caps, and many people would have higher premiums, Kimmel said.
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