One week after making his emotionally overwrought appeal to save Obamacare by citing the open-heart surgery of his infant son, Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show to offer a mock apology for having done so. Kimmel had been roundly criticized by many, including Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro, who wrote a scathing column noting that his daughter had gone through a virtually identical surgery at the same hospital and even with the same surgeon before pointing out that Kimmel had been smart enough to purchase health insurance before his son’s birth. Shapiro followed up with a segment on his podcast in which he illuminated why Kimmel’s espousal of government-controlled health insurance was wrong, noting that the American people are incredibly generous and that’s how the system should work:
Children’s Hospital is very lucky in that Children’s has enormous sums of giving. People give tons of money to Children’s Hospital. I’m sure Jimmy Kimmel will too. We’ve given charity to Children’s Hospital. There’s a whole wall, an entire wall in Children’s Hospital, that is just names of celebrities who have given money to Children’s Hospital to help support Children’s Hospital.
People are generous with their giving. People want to save people who are in need. The problem with the argument that we have to cover pre-existing conditions, which is basically what Jimmy Kimmel is saying here, is number one, when it comes to children, it is the job of the parents to have health insurance when the kid is born, because the parents’ health insurance covers the kid, right? The fact is that my kid was not buying her own health insurance when she was a year and a half old, we had health insurance; it covered her.
That doesn’t mean that if there’s a gap that we as a community shouldn’t step in; that’s what charity is for, that’s why the hospitals cover the gap. That’s why costs are passed on, very often, through a back-door method, via the hospital, to people who do have insurance. But it does say, that it is a mistake as a society, to simply say to people that there is no moral responsibility to get health insurance while you’re healthy and while you don’t have health problems. Because if you don’t do that, if you just say, whenever you get sick you can immediately take advantage of the system, people will wait to get sick to take advantage of the system and you’ll end up bankrupting the system.
The reason that Children’s is so great is because Children’s gets paid lots of money. They get paid lots and lots and lots of money to do these sorts of things.
On Monday, even though Kimmel made his sarcastic apology, he unwittingly confirmed exactly what Shapiro had posited. Kimmel’s monologue started like this:
One week ago tonight I made an emotional speech that was seen by millions and as a result of my powerful words on that night, Republicans in Congress had second thoughts about repeal and replace; they realized that what is right is right, and I saved health insurance in the United States of America. Thank you.
Putting his hand to the earpiece in his ear, pretending he was getting a message from his producer, Kimmel said, “I didn’t? I didn’t save it? They voted against it anyway? I really need to pay more attention to the news. I have to say,” before explaining that his son was doing well. Showing a short video of his son smiling, Kimmel unwittingly made Shapiro’s point, uttering, “He’s smiling because so many people donated to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles … so many people made donations to CHLA and my wife and I are very grateful. Our plan is to send a card to everyone who made a donation; there were lots.” He added, “There was so much kindness, so much compassion, it was hard to even process.”
Then Kimmel resorted to attacking those who criticized him for his emotional speech, saying sarcastically, “But there were also, and I know this is going to shock you, there were also some not-so-nice things that people said online about me, including members of the media.” He referenced a headline in The New York Post that read, “Jimmy Kimmel’s obscene lies about kids and medical care,” a headline in The Washington Times, (he snarked, “I don’t think that it’s a real newspaper”) that read “Shut up, you elitist creep.”
“I would like to apologize for saying children in America should have health care; it was insensitive, it was offensive and I hope you can find it in my heart to forgive me.”
Jimmy Kimmel
Then Kimmel gave his mock apology: “I would like to apologize for saying children in America should have health care; it was insensitive, it was offensive and I hope you can find it in my heart to forgive me.”
Video below: