He said:

Like the president's father, my own parents came to this country from a distant land. When they arrived in Baton Rouge, my mother was already four-and-a-half-months pregnant. I was what folks in the insurance industry now call a pre-existing condition.

JINDAL: To find work, my dad picked up the yellow pages and started calling local businesses. Even after landing a job, he still couldn't afford to pay for my delivery, so he worked out an installment plan with the doctor. Fortunately for me, he never missed a payment.


Yes, he trivialized what people mean by "pre-existing condition". Did he say anything about insurance otherwise? Are we supposed to believe that the physician would have repossessed him if his father didn't pay? How exactly was it "fortunate for [him]"?

It was intended as a laugh line, and also to trivialize discussion of the seriousness of pre-existing conditions when it comes to trying to get health insurance coverage. He was saying, "See, I turned out Ok without my mom having insurance. You can too." He's laying down a (not so subtle) marker for the coming health care debate in Congress.

His intent was to get people to think: "Oh, pre-existing condition. That's like what Bobby's mom had. Yuk, yuk." Or something.

If you start a healthplan today and are 4 months pregnant, guess what you aint covered. Pregnancy short of major diseases and operations is freaking expensive.

That's right. But was that his point? No, it wasn't. Given the text, I'm not sure what his point was except that he's somehow exactly like Obama, but not. But given Republican tactics over the last 20 years or so, it's easy to see why the line is there.

FWIW. :-)

Cheers,
Scott.