Nothing wrong with a little free market incentive to deny people health care in exchange for profit…

Sheesh. Every so often, a situation arises wherein the cartoonist wonders how you draw a cartoon about something already so ludicrously cartoonish? Sarah Palin became famous for, among other things, shooting at stuff that didn’t stand a chance – from helicopters, so here you go…

This cartoon goes out to all my friends who under the normal rules would currently be fully engaged in careers. While the rain has been incessant here in the Northeast, it has been a dry, hot dustbowl for those who have mysteriously found themselves on the wrong end of the recession. When we talk about the economy, what we really are talking about is the well-being and comfort of humans. I don’t expect a return to the mindless, debt-infused consume-fest that has come to signify the first decade of the 21st Century. But wherever “normal” is, I hope we return there soon.

I sketched up various cartoon permutations of Bernie Madoff this week, but ultimately none of them said much more than he’s going to get his in jail. Blah, blah, blah, there’s a thousand cartoons on the web saying the same obvious thing. The bigger story is that lax Federal oversight is unlikely to protect investors from future Ponzi schemes, whether they be the illegal or legal variety.

My friend and talented fellow editorial cartoonist Mike Lester, sent me this story this morning. I SWEAR it was just a coincidence. I don’t read the Orlando Daily whatsit’s local stories online looking for colloquial metaphors! Perhaps I should start. That would have saved me a whole pile of thinking…

Pursuant to my previous blog entry…

The media gives its audience what it wants, so I suppose we really should be looking at the man in the mirror here. Oof. Sorry. That’s enough of that. Rest in peace, Mr. Jackson.

Much to the relief of “President” Ahmedinejad and Governor Sanford (I’m sure), the untimely death of Michael Jackson has overwhelmingly placed philandering politicians and the Iranian democracy crisis on news cycle back-burners for the time being. Nonetheless, we can reminisce – Here’s what I penned over the past few days…

Drew this scene from memory. Looks like my kitchen floor after breakfast w/my 21 month old son. He has an excuse though.

I love drawing angry men yelling out of windows. Conjures fond childhood memories.
Another thing that conjures fond childhood memories is not being handed an ER bill for 10,000 Pounds the time I broke my big toe in a spectacular cycling accident near London. (That’s approximately the amount I was charged when I broke my collarbone in December – as astute loyal readers of this blog will remember.) I have spent many hours in various ERs and the single difference between British and US versions is one won’t discharge you without handing you a breathtaking invoice. The care itself is pretty much the same.

The big question is of course, how do we pay for the “public option” as it has been dubbed? Here’s my take:

1) The Insurance Companies are making massive profits as toll collectors between us and our doctors. Those profits are real money – so there’s masses of room for vast cost-cutting, which the public option would enable – And is the main reason insurance companies are freaking out.

2) Due to the high quarterly profit requirements of the middlemen insurance companies, decent health plans are monumentally expensive. I (a lucky member of “the insured”) pay a small fortune (aka “tax”) for family coverage, and I still have to pay huge out of pocket charges that seem to be plucked at random from a hat sitting in front of whichever “associate” I happen to be complaining to. Every dollar they force me to pay is a dollar in their pocket.
I don’t think I am alone in saying that I would gleefully redirect my high premiums/copays into a national system in order to starve the Insurance Co.s of profit – especially if it also meant my unemployed neighbor is covered when her little boy breaks his toe in a spectacular cycling accident.

3) The Iraq war still costs us $12 billion a month. How come anti-health-care-for-all deficit hawks weren’t up in arms about that huge piece of unsustainable Government spending? Anyway there’s $12 billion a month right there without touching the current tax rate.

There! All figured out. A National Health plan will not be perfect, I admit…But the current system of delivery is worse, and frankly unsustainable. I’m sure none of my dear regular blog readers/commenters have anything to say about my personal take on this particular issue…