Jimmy Kimmel makes tearful plea alongside 7-month-old son for Congress to save child healthcare program
- Jimmy Kimmel made a tearful plea to lawmakers to secure funding for CHIP.
- The Children's Health Insurance Program covers 9 million children who would struggle to pay for healthcare without it.
- Kimmel held his son Billy, who has a heart condition that has required several surgeries.
- CHIP's funding expired while politicians were finalising details of an impending tax bill.
Jimmy Kimmel took his seven-month-son on air to make a tearful plea to congress to save the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which covers 9 million children in the US.
Kimmel appeared alongside Billy after a week-long break from his show, "Live." Billy was born with tetralogy of fallot with pulmonary atresia, a rare defect which required open heart surgery just hours after his birth.
Billy has undergone a series of surgeries in his short life, but Kimmel said he now has just one more to go.
CHIP, first introduced during the Clinton administration, recently had its funding lapse as Congress focuses on passing tax reform. An analysis by the Urban Institute found that 1.2 million children, many of them in low-income families, could lose their healthcare.
Speaking with his son in his arms, Kimmel immediately began to tear up while compelling Congress to act to fund CHIP, and his viewers to demand action from their representatives.
"CHIP has become a bargaining chip. It's on the back burner while they work out their new tax plans, which means parents of children with cancer, diabetes and heart problems are about to get letters saying their coverage could be cut off next month," Kimmel said. "Merry Christmas, right?"
"Imagine getting that letter, literally not knowing how you will afford to save your child's life. This is not a hypothetical. About 2 million CHIP kids have serious chronic conditions," Kimmel said.
Kimmel pointed out that CHIP usually gets bipartisan support in the Senate and House but said "this year they let the money for it expire while they work on getting tax cuts for their millionaire and billionaire donors."
Watch the full clip below: