Last week, Jimmy Kimmel told the story of how doctors saved the life of his newborn son Billy, who came into the world with a congenital heart condition.
The late night host’s monologue drew praise from the likes of Barack Obama; it triggered a flood of donations to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
But it also drew derision from some quarters; former Republican congressman Joe Walsh tweeted that, “your sad story doesn’t obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else’s health care.”
Kimmel had nothing to say to Walsh on Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.
WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel moved to tears revealing newborn son’s heart disease
But he did have words for others who slagged his health care advocacy. Like The New York Post, which published a story with the headline, “Jimmy Kimmel’s obscene lies about kids and medical care.”
Or Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador, who was caught on camera saying, “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”
READ MORE: Joe Walsh tweets about Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘sad story,’ receives major backlash
“I would like to apologize for saying that children in America should have health care,” Kimmel said.
“It was insensitive, it was offensive and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
The House of Representatives last week passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare that will now go to the Senate.
Kimmel had kinder words for Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator from Louisiana who said in a recent TV interview that he would like the health care bill to “pass the Jimmy Kimmel test,” which for him would mean asking whether a child with a congenital heart condition would be able to obtain “everything she or he would need in that first year of life.”
In an interview with Cassidy, Kimmel recommended a few criteria for such a test: that “no family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, if they can’t afford it.”
“You’re on the right track,” Cassidy responded.
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