Cancer-Surviving Journalist Breaks Down In Tears Over GOP Health Care Bill

Breast cancer survivor and journalist Xeni Jardin knows firsthand how health care coverage can be the difference between life and death.

She broke down in tears on MSNBC just hours after the Republican-led House of Representatives narrowly passed the controversial American Health Care Act, which would repeal Obamacare and strip millions of their health insurance.

“It’s not a political outcome,” Jardin told host Chris Hayes on Thursday. “It’s a human outcome.”

“This isn’t the America that I love,” she added tearfully. “The America that I love cares about my right to life even though I’m 46 years past being a fetus. The America that I love loves diversity.”

Jardin referenced late night host Jimmy Kimmel’s viral monologue earlier this week, in which he revealed that his newborn son had undergone heart surgery for a birth defect. Kimmel pleaded with viewers to stand up for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, which offers protections to patients with pre-existing medical conditions so they can afford health care. Their access to care could be significantly reduced under the GOP’s bill.

“The America that I love ... knows that those babies weren’t born into the world with some kind of original sin that makes some of them worthy of death and the others worthy of life,” Jardin said.

“This isn’t robbing Peter to pay Paul,” she added. “This is killing Peter to pay Paul.”