Obama Tweets After Kimmel's Plea: 'Exactly Why We Fought' For Obamacare
- 7 years ago
Former President Obama tweeted Tuesday about Obamacare after Jimmy Kimmel's emotional plea.
Former President Obama has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving office, but he recently expressed his support for talk show host Jimmy Kimmel while promoting his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, or the ACA, which Republicans are trying to overturn.
On Monday night, Kimmel tweeted a video of his show’s monologue where he talked about the birth of his newborn son William, called Billy, who was found to have a congenital heart defect.
Obama retweeted the post on Tuesday and wrote, “Well said, Jimmy. That's exactly why we fought so hard for the ACA, and why we need to protect it for kids like Billy. And congratulations!”
His reference to the ACA was made after Kimmel talked about Congress’s decision to boost funding for the National Institutes of Health by $2 billion in the new budget despite the Trump administration’s initial effort to cut its budget.
Kimmel told his audience, “I applaud them for doing that because more than 40 percent of the people who would have been affected by those cuts to the National Institutes of Health are children, and [the cuts] would have a major impact on a lot of great places, including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.”
He added, “We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, but until what, a few years ago, millions and millions of us had no access to health insurance at all. 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 pre-existing condition.”
He ended the monologue by saying, “No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life. It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.”
Despite Republican leaders’ efforts to bring their health care replacement plan to a vote, CNN is reporting that they do not yet have enough votes to pass the bill.
Former President Obama has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving office, but he recently expressed his support for talk show host Jimmy Kimmel while promoting his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, or the ACA, which Republicans are trying to overturn.
On Monday night, Kimmel tweeted a video of his show’s monologue where he talked about the birth of his newborn son William, called Billy, who was found to have a congenital heart defect.
Obama retweeted the post on Tuesday and wrote, “Well said, Jimmy. That's exactly why we fought so hard for the ACA, and why we need to protect it for kids like Billy. And congratulations!”
His reference to the ACA was made after Kimmel talked about Congress’s decision to boost funding for the National Institutes of Health by $2 billion in the new budget despite the Trump administration’s initial effort to cut its budget.
Kimmel told his audience, “I applaud them for doing that because more than 40 percent of the people who would have been affected by those cuts to the National Institutes of Health are children, and [the cuts] would have a major impact on a lot of great places, including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.”
He added, “We were brought up to believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, but until what, a few years ago, millions and millions of us had no access to health insurance at all. 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 pre-existing condition.”
He ended the monologue by saying, “No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life. It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.”
Despite Republican leaders’ efforts to bring their health care replacement plan to a vote, CNN is reporting that they do not yet have enough votes to pass the bill.