Jimmy Kimmel Delivers Emotional Monologue About Newborn Son, Defends Obamacare

Jimmy Kimmel and his wife welcomed a son into the world on April 21 and soon discovered he had a rare heart condition and needed treatment right away.

JIMMY KIMMEL DELIVERS MONOLOGUE ABOUT NEWBORN SON

Kimmel started off his show with a monologue about the whole terrifying experience, tearing up and his voice breaking at times throughout. His son Billy was diagnosed with tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia, meaning the infant’s heart had a hole between his left and right heart ventricles.

In the nearly 13-minute speech, Kimmel describes how they discovered the condition and successfully treated the condition. Billy underwent open-heart surgery and will need another when he is three or four months old, and then another procedure in his early teens, but for now he is happy and healthy.

Kimmel brought a long list of people to thank, from the nurse who discovered the murmur, to the doctor that performed the operation, to his family, friends, and staff. “Even that son-of-a-b—-h Matt Damon sent flowers,” he joked through tears.

But then he turned his attention on health care in the U.S. I want to say one other thing. President Trump last month proposed a $6 billion cut in funding to the National Institute of Health, and thank God our congressmen made a deal last night to not go along with that. They actually increased funding by $2 billion, and I applaud them for doing that,” Kimmel began.

“We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, but until a few years ago, millions and millions of us had no access to health insurance at all,” he continued. “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 preexisting condition. You were born with a preexisting condition, and if your parents didn’t have medical insurance, you might not live long enough to even get denied because of a preexisting 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? I mean, we do,” he continued to cheers from the audience. “Whatever your party, whatever you believe, whoever you support, we need to make sure that the people who are supposed to represent us, the people who are meeting about this right now in Washington, understand that very clearly, let’s stop with the nonsense. This isn’t football, there are no teams,” he said. “We are the team, it’s the United States. Don’t let their partisan squabbles divide us on something every decent person wants.”

He teared up again when turning his thoughts to those parents who are still in the hospital, and those who cannot afford to help their sick children. “No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life, it just shouldn’t happen, not here,” Kimmel said, choking up. “Please say a prayer or send positive thoughts to the families with children who are still in the hospital now because they need it.”

Watch the entire raw monologue below.