Health Care: Apparently, decisions about how to reform the nation's $3.2 trillion health care system must now win the approval of a late-night comedian who once hosted "The Man Show," which featured girls in bikinis bouncing on trampolines. Well, if health care reform has to face the "Jimmy Kimmel test" to be morally acceptable, why isn't he denouncing ObamaCare?
For those who don't know, Kimmel became the reigning expert on health reform because his newborn son was born with a heart defect. All Kimmel had to do was give a tearful monologue that included a plea: "If your baby is going to die and it doesn't have to, it shouldn't matter how much money you make. I think that's something that whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?"
Kimmel went on to say that "no family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it."
Voila, the "Jimmy Kimmel test" was born.
Unfortunately, it was Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy who coined that phrase, and promised that any ObamaCare replacement plan approved by the GOP would pass this new, amorphous test.
So, when Cassidy's bill, co-authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, came out, an anxious nation wondered: How would Kimmel rule?
Not surprisingly, Kimmel's answer was that Cassidy's bill failed the JKT.
But what nobody has bothered to point out is that ObamaCare itself fails this test. Because for millions of Americans, ObamaCare is entirely unaffordable, and getting less affordable by the year.
Thanks to annual double-digit rate hikes, millions of middle class families find themselves unable to afford the premiums, let alone the deductibles or copays. In fact, the uninsured rate among those who aren't eligible for ObamaCare subsidies climbed this year, according to the Commonwealth Fund. The Gallup survey found that the uninsured rate increase in the second quarter of this year, which it attributed in part to "rising insurance premiums" and "the lack of competition" for ObamaCare plans.
Even with ObamaCare's "guaranteed" coverage, it still leaves patients exposed to massive health care bills. Standard plans in the exchanges come with family deductibles that can top $13,000. The Kimmel "out-of-pocket spending cap" rule doesn't mean anything to families who can't even afford the annual deductible.
Not only that, but almost every ObamaCare plan offered in the exchanges is now an HMO with very narrow provider networks. Patients who go out of network get zero coverage. Got that, Kimmel? Zip. Zero. Nada. According to HealthPocket, almost 60% of ObamaCare plans have no out-of-network coverage.
Plus, those out-of-pocket maximums don't apply to patients who go out-of-network to find the right doctor or hospital.
That's why there have been numerous accounts of ObamaCare enrollees who can't afford the "Affordable Care Act." In fact, a survey by the liberal Commonwealth Fund found that about 40% of ObamaCare enrollees say they aren't confident that they could afford care if they got sick.
If the test is that "no family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it," ObamaCare gets an "F."
Just to be clear, we are not arguing that lawmakers should pour still more money into ObamaCare until Jimmy Kimmel is satisfied. The point is that Jimmy Kimmel doesn't know what he's talking about.
Just because ObamaCare promises something, doesn't mean it's actually delivering it. And the Republican plan, because it relies on states and not the federal government, has a better chance of providing affordable health care to more people than ObamaCare ever could.
At one point in his latest disquisition on health care, Kimmel admitted that "health care is complicated. It's boring. I don't want to talk about it."
Oh, if only he would follow his own advice.