Late Night TV’s impact on healthcare legislation

Who does America trust when it comes to healthcare issues?
According to a recent poll, Americans may favor a late night TV host over their politicians.

Late Night TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s son William John Kimmel was born in April with a serious heart issue. He made an emotional case for universal healthcare coverage for families who were dealing with similar medical issues but didn’t have insurance or couldn’t afford the cost of care. The video has more than 11 million views on YouTube. His speech got the attention of at least one U.S. Senator, Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who said earlier in the year he would only support healthcare legislation if it passed a “Jimmy Kimmel test.” However, Kimmell argued that the recently proposed Graham-Cassidy bill wouldn’t protect people with pre-existing conditions, and over the course of several shows made an appeal to his audience to contact U.S. Congressman in opposition to the bill. The bill was eventually pulled.

According to Public Policy Polling: Jimmy Kimmel won the health care battle in the court of public opinion. By a 47/34 spread, voters say they trust Kimmel more than the Republicans in Congress when it comes to health care issues. Kimmel has a 47/30 favorability rating nationally. By contrast Paul Ryan is at a 25/51 approval rating, Mitch McConnell is at 14/61, and Congress as a whole has a 9/76 approval.

Only 27% of voters support the most recent Republican health care bill to 53% who oppose it. By contrast the Affordable Care Act continues to have new found popularity with 48% of voters in favor of it and 34% against. Asked which of the bills they prefer the Affordable Care Act beats out the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill 53-34, and only 32% of voters think the best path forward on health care is to repeal the Affordable Care Act while 62% think it’s best to keep it and makes fixes as necessary

Watch a video where Kimmel discusses the defeat of the healthcare bill with his audience