Jimmy Kimmel Asks For Support Of Obamacare, Makes Emotional Plea After His Newborn Nearly Dies

A fixture of late-night TV in the U.S. and the host of this year's Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel, tearfully revealed his newborn son's health complications in an emotional monologue in his show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" Monday night. He then made a plea for people to support the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Kimmel, referring to President Donald Trump's promise to repeal Obamacare, which covers pre-existing conditions like his son’s heart disease, said on the show: "No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child's life." Kimmel used the show's monologue to recount his newborn son's open-heart surgery.

Read: Will House Republicans, Freedom Caucus Replace Obamacare?

Kimmel's wife, Molly, gave birth to their second child — a baby boy named Billy — April 21. Kimmel said on his show that the newborn was diagnosed with a rare heart disease and had to undergo a harrowing round of open-heart surgery right after being born. However, Billy's surgery went well and he was able to leave the hospital and come back home with family during the weekend. A second surgery will have to be performed a few months later.

Kimmel said, "President Trump last month proposed a $6 billion cut in funding to the National Institutes 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."

"More than 40% of the people who would have been affected by those cuts to NIH are children and it would have had a major impact on a lot of great places, including Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which is so unbelievably sad to me."

Medical coverage and treatment of children shouldn't be a partisan issue, he said.

"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, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that," he said, as the audience applauded. "Whatever you believe, whoever you support, we need to make sure the people who are supposed to represent us understand this very clearly. Let's stop with the nonsense. This isn't football. There are no teams. We are the team. Don't let partisan squabbles divide us on something every decent person wants. We need to take care of each other."

In the show, Kimmel also thanked all the doctors and nurses at Los Angeles's Cedars Sinai Hospital, where Billy was born and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he underwent the surgery.

According to ABC's website, since Kimmel needs to be at home with his family this week, his friends have lined up to guest-host "Jimmy Kimmel Live." Will Arnett will host Tuesday’s show, with a special appearance from his "The Gong Show" host, Tommy Maitland. Anthony Anderson is on board for Wednesday, while Kristen Bell and David Spade will take over on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The guest list for the week includes Maya Rudolph, Charlie Hunnam, Adam Scott and Guy Ritchie.

One of the people behind the Affordable Care Act, Andy Slavitt , tweeted that those who watched Kimmel's monologue should use it as inspiration to lobby Congress.