Jimmy Kimmel Compares Cassidy-Graham Health Care Proposal to Bill Cosby (Video)

“We’ve not seen this many people come forward to speak out against a Bill since Cosby,” late-night host says

The battle of words between Jimmy Kimmel and Sen. Bill Cassidy over health care continued on Thursday, with the ABC late-night host looking back on “an unusual week.”

“If you’ve been watching the show over the past few days, I have found myself in the middle of a battle over American health care,” Kimmel began his monologue.

“The reason I had [Cassidy] on my show in the first place was because he started telling people that any plan he supports would have to pass what he called ‘The Jimmy Kimmel Test,’” Kimmel said, before reiterating his reasons for protesting the Cassidy-Graham bill that aims to overhaul the health care system and replace Obamacare.

In his response Wednesday morning, the Louisiana Republican told CNN’s “New Day”: “I’m sorry he does not understand … more people will have coverage, and we protect those with pre-existing conditions.” The senator added, “There’ll be billions more dollars to provide health insurance coverage to those in those states who have been passed by Obamacare.”

The bill’s supporters say that giving states more flexibility to decide how they provide health care assistance to their residents will free them to design better, locally controlled systems, the L.A. Times reported. Graham and Cassidy state that their proposal keeps most of the tax revenue raised by the 2010 law, allowing the federal government to continue providing hundreds of billions of dollars of assistance.

However, Kimmel has said that “Americans, understandably, especially do not like the idea of being priced out of insurance for a pre-existing condition,” citing objections raised to the Cassidy-Graham bill by the American Diabetes Association, American Medical Association, American Cancer Society and American Heart Association.

“We haven’t seen this many people come forward to speak out against a Bill since Cosby,” he quipped.

“So, the president got involved last night, via Twitter, of course,” Kimmel continued, before quoting Trump’s tweets.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/910641701064204288

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/910671525543645185

“For Donald Trump, this isn’t about the Graham-Cassidy bill, it’s about getting rid of Obamacare, which he hates — primarily because Obama’s name is on it,” Kimmel said.

The Oscars host went on to defend his knowledge of health care — and his knowledge of Hollywood. “The fact that Charlie Sheen is still alive means he probably knows more about health care than any of us.

“And I feel like it’s my duty to remind these people who are so concerned about my qualifications, the guy you voted for president — his job qualification?  He fired Meat Loaf,” he said in a “Celebrity Apprentice” reference. “And you put him in the White House.”

Watch the video above.

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