GOP senator defends health bill against Kimmel’s attacks
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bill Cassidy defended his health care bill Wednesday after late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel accused the Louisiana Republican of lying to him about it, heightening the tension around the last-ditch GOP effort to make good on years of promises to repeal “Obamacare.”
“I am sorry he does not understand,” Cassidy said on CNN, arguing that his bill would in fact protect people with pre-existing conditions, a claim that Kimmel as well as leading health advocacy groups dispute. “I think the price will actually be lower.”
“This guy Bill Cassidy just lied right to my face,” Kimmel said on his ABC show Tuesday night, referring to Cassidy’s promises to Kimmel and others that his health bill would pass the “Jimmy Kimmel test.” Cassidy coined the phrase to mean that people with pre-existing conditions would have protections and not face lifetime caps on coverage from insurers.
“We can’t let ’em do this, to our children and our senior citizens and our veterans, or to any of us,” said Kimmel, who jumped into the heath care debate after his son was born with a congenital heart defect in April.