Kimmel misses the lesson

On Monday’s “Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!” host Jimmy Kimmel told the story of the birth of his son. And like a good liberal, he completely missed the lesson of the experience.

After relaying the “scary story” of his son’s “easy birth” and subsequent heart issues, Kimmel seamlessly launched into an entreaty ripe with false liberal premises.

• Government is good; more government is better, you know, “for the children.”

An emotional Kimmel opined, “President Trump ... proposed a $6 billion cut in funding to the National Institute of Health. And thank God, our congressmen ... actually increased funding by $2 billion ... because more than 40 percent … affected by those cuts ... are children.”

Kimmel went on to say the cuts would have a major impact on “a lot of great places, including Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles,” where his son’s heart was repaired.

Putting aside the emotional distortion, Kimmel’s false premise here is a mere $6B cut to overhead payments in research, not services, would somehow cause children to die. That is ridiculous.

In an already-bloated and inefficient system, cutting $6B is being twisted to mean POTUS wants children to die.

• Without the ACA, pre-existing conditions weren’t covered, but now everyone is magically covered.

“Before 2014, if you were born with congenital heart disease, like my son, … you’d never be able to get health insurance because … you were born with a preexisting condition,” Kimmel lamented.

While the left loves to perpetuate this false premise, the truth is, before ACA, those with preexisting conditions — like Baby Billy — absolutely could get coverage.

According to “U.S. News & World Report,” pre-existing conditions were covered either by the individual market at a higher rate or through Medicaid/Medicare for those who couldn’t afford the higher premiums.

Before ACA, the market provided solutions by creating high-risk pools for the small number of people who couldn’t afford health coverage, but what Kimmel fails to realize is that the very act of government mandating coverage to all “made those solutions irrelevant and unavailable” – and so now many millions are without coverage due the ACA itself.

In fact, noted health-care expert Betsy McCaughey estimates the number of people who would lose coverage due to preexisting conditions if the ACA is eliminated “is roughly 500,000,” not the “millions and millions” the left constantly claims.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has been taking care of needy ill children since 1901— well before the ACA. That’s right, Baby Billy would’ve received care even if his father wasn’t a multi-millionaire.

In fact, Children’s gets only a small portion of its funding for charity care from the NIH, while the majority of funding is from donations, both individual and corporate.

• Heartless Republicans want the poor and defenseless to die; liberals care deeply.

“If your baby is going to die … it shouldn’t matter how much money you make. … Whatever your party … we need to make sure the people who are supposed to represent us … understand that very clearly.

“Let’s stop with the nonsense. This isn’t football; there are no teams. We are the teams; it’s the United States. Don’t let their partisan squabbles divide us in something every decent person wants. We need to take care of each other.

“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,” Kimmel wept.

The premise of the heartless Republican is one liberals know how to use well. However, unsurprisingly, it’s false. The truth is: no seriously ill child or person is ever turned away from this country’s hospitals. We are a nation of compassionate and caring people and no matter what the left says, we Republicans believe in taking care of the needy among us.

We simply do not agree that government is the best system for doing that. Even our regional Henry Mayo Newhall and Antelope Valley hospitals have systems in place to cover charity care with funds donated far beyond those of the NIH.

Yes, what happened to Baby Billy is emotional and scary; thankfully, it had a happy ending. In fact, the left thrives on emotions, not facts.

What Jimmy Kimmel should have used his platform for was a call for his audience to give to their local hospitals, not a call to grow the government. Charitable giving is the lesson here, and we can only hope Baby Billy grows up to learn the right lesson.

Before ACA, those with pre-existing conditions — like Baby Billy — absolutely could get coverage.