Jimmy Kimmel on Bill Cassidy’s Health “Care” Bill

I'm not sure when Jimmy Kimmel became the voice of political reason but F it, Donald Trump is president, anything's possible. Last night he gave a very clear and concise reason why the new Cassidy Graham healthcare bill is straight trash. He didn't end his monologue with girls bouncing on trampolines or anything but it's still worth your six minutes.

The thing I don't think most people realize or acknowledge is that insurance companies are these huge profit driven businesses. They only make money by paying out less than people pay in. I feel like a lot of Americans believe insurance is some sort of savings account, you pay in every month and when you get sick you get to make a withdrawl. That's why you see so many people fighting for lower premiums for younger healthy people. They're not pulling as much money out why should they put more money in? Why should they pay to cover all sorts of procedures they'll never, or likely never, use? They don't want to admit that the basic insurance model is socialism, with the insurance company taking 30% off the top. Everybody contributes so that the people that need to use it can.

It's a fine model when you're talking about your car or your house. It's terrible when we're talking about real human beings. No insurance company should say "sorry, you've had enough" when it comes to medical treatment. Even the shittiest people are priceless, and private insurance hinges on putting a price on everything.

On the plus side, I feel like we're closer than we've ever been to adopting a single payer system. Just ten years ago it would have been political suicide. Now the most popular Senator in the country is actively pushing a plan. That's kind of amazing.

I'm not crazy, when it comes down to it I'm pretty jaded against all things politics. I'm sure that a single payer system would be a giant clusterfuck too, but our current system, and the old system the GOP wants to go back to, is straight up class warfare, where the rich and the healthy succeed and the sick and the poor either die or go bankrupt trying to stay alive. That's about as far from the American dream as you can get.

Sorry for getting on my soapbox, next post will be about video games I promise.

Jimmy Kimmel Reveals Details of His Son’s Birth & Heart Disease

I'm not going to lie to you, this monologue from Jimmy Kimmel had me in tears last night. First off, I can only imagine how awful it is to have your kid rushed to major surgery like that so soon after they were born. Just having my son born via "rushed" (emergency isn't quite the right word there) c-section was enough for me. When they wheeled my wife into the operating room and I had to wait outside while they prepped her, it was the longest 10 minutes. A couple months ago my daughter had to have an MRI for a spinal issue and that was equally nerve-racking.

My daughter is fine, in the grand scheme of things but we've been in and out of Children's Hospital the last couple weeks and have appointments scheduled through May. Some days it is tough going there and seeing all the medical issues kids have to deal with. Kids should be outside climbing trees or inside watching too much youtube, they shouldn't be in hospitals.

Anyway I'm missing my point, which is totally political. The United States of America is the richest nation in the world, probably in the history of the world. It's beyond ridiculous that we can't care for each others medial needs. My daughter's spinal issue (which again, isn't that big of a deal) is going to require an MRI every six months to monitor until it either goes away or she's done growing at the age of like 22. Even with insurance that's $3,000 an MRI and I'm not about to do the math to see how much that will cost in until she's graduated and has her own insurance. Without provisions for pre-existing conditions there's a good chance she would never be able to get insurance or if she could it's going to be insanely expensive.

I'm not saying I have all the answers or even any answers. I just know that in a nation with this much wealth its ridiculous that anyone should have to go bankrupt because they needed medical care. How some people are cool with stockpiling tanks we don't need and nuclear weapons we hope to never use, but heaven forbid we pay for someone's liver transplant is beyond me. People's lives aren't just another line in the budget, whatever it takes to keep kids, mothers, fathers, brothers, aunts and uncles alive and healthy is money well spent.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. My next post will be a Mario cartoon or something.

Jimmy Kimmel's Tribute to Don Rickles

Jimmy Kimmel had a really nice tribute to Don Rickles last night. Normally I find Kimmel a bit too cool for school as far as late night talk show hosts go but this was really heartfelt and moving. It's not exactly in my normal blogging wheelhouse but it was nice enough that I thought I'd share.

I spent a lot of time as a kid flying around visiting relatives, since my mom worked for an airline flights were pretty much free. When I flew I used to listen to the comedy channel a lot (this was pre-fancy in flight entertainment of course) so I became very familiar with the stand up acts of a lot of classic comedians like Don Rickles, Bill Cosby, Rich Little, Stephen Wright, George Carlin etc. I don't know what it was but United Airlines comedy channel was stuck like 10 years in the past so it was a lot of guys from the 70s and early 80s with like a single Seinfeld set thrown in their seemingly randomly.

I don't know, there's no real point to this it's just weird when celebrities you've grown up with die. It's like I've never known a world without Don Rickles busting peoples balls. I assume he's probably called St. Peter a hockey puck like 30 times already.

Are you excited for the Obesity Epidemic?

Last weekend Jimmy Kimmel sent a reporter to the Coachella music festival to ask a bunch of kids in stupid looking outfits about bands that don't exist. Hilarity ensues.

Something tells me Jimmy Kimmel doesn't like Jay Leno very much

Good gravy, for some perverse reason Leno invited Jimmy Kimmel on his show last night. Kimmel pretty much tore Leno to shreds on his own show. It's so brutal I had a hard time watching it... the 4th time I watched it.