Slashing Medicaid: Your Loss Our Gain

My new cartoon collection, Why Must They Shove It In My Face?, is out. It’s about 200 pages of cartoony goodness, featuring 100 cartoons, plus text pieces and oodles of behind-the-scenes sketches. You can download the PDF if you join my Patreon at the $3 level. In fact, you get to download four different book collections if you join at the $3 level — about 700 pages of material!

Kody Kinsley and Dan Rusyniak – former Secretaries of Health for North Carolina and Indiana – wrote about Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill”:

…the bill’s $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid would pinch state budgets, forcing governors and state legislators to make tough decisions that are certain to be costly to the health of residents in both the short and long terms. …

People without health insurance still get sick. Hospitals, which are legally required to treat individuals in an emergency, would be forced to weather uncompensated care that is predicted to increase by $83 billion over the decade. In the same period, the bill would cause all providers to lose out on $1 trillion in revenue. Providers have little option but to cover losses by raising prices, which increases costs for everyone.

So why write such a terrible bill? Partly, of course, it’s just that Republicans are ideologically opposed to Medicaid, no matter how much good it does. But it’s also a desperate attempt to partly offset the enormous costs of tax breaks for the rich.

From a CNN report on a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the effects of the BBB:

Those at the bottom of the income ladder, who earn less than $24,000, on average, from wages and other income streams, will see their projected incomes drop by about $1,200 a year, or 3.1%, between 2026 and 2034 – mainly from reductions in benefits, including Medicaid and food stamps.

Middle-income Americans, who earn about $86,000, on average, will get an $800 bump, or about 0.8%, according to the analysis.

But the highest earners, with incomes of nearly $700,000, on average, will see a $13,600 jump in their incomes, or about 2.7%.

The cruelty of it all is hard to comprehend. (“The cruelty of it all is hard to comprehend,” I’ve been told by a reliable source, by which I mean, myself, is the Republican party’s official motto).

In this cartoon and “You Only Think You Liked It!” I’m playing around with a new color palette. I’ve always liked the way limited palettes look; there a fun challenge in trying to make a very small number of colors stand for everything.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, each featuring the same two characters: A representative of the Republican party, a middle-aged man wearing a jacket and tie, and a diabetic with spiky red hair. I’ll call them “Tie” and “Spike.”

PANEL 1

We’re in a grassy area, with trees and a fence in the background. Tie is speaking to Spike sternly, and Spike replies anxiously.

TIE: You know how much insulin costs? Throwing freeloaders like you off Medicaid will save tons of money!

SPIKE: But if I can’t afford insulin, I’ll wind up in the E.R., which costs a lot more!

PANEL 2

As they continue talking, they are now in the E.R..

SPIKE: Since I won’t be able to pay, the costs will be passed onto hospitals, other patients, and state governments.

PANEL 3

Spike is now in a hospice bed, wearing a patient’s gown. Tie is by Spike’s bedside, still speaking sternly.

SPIKE: And the sicker I get, the less I can work and contribute to the economy, right?

TIE: Maybe that’s all true.

PANEL 4

We’re back in the grassy area. Tie is grinning hugely and skipping. Spike has been replaced by a gravestone marked “R.I.P.”.

TIE: But have you considered how huge my tax cuts will be?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is moribund cartoonists’ jargon for little extras in the artwork.

PANEL 1 – A tree has a sign saying “Do not climb – tree is only a drawing.” Below the sign is an evil bunny smoking a cigarette.

PANEL 2 – There are framed portraits of Dr. Hibbert from The Simpsons and Dr. Benson Honeydew from the Muppets. A spy with a walkie-talkie is peering out from a hole in the floor.

PANEL 3 – Outside the window, we can see the Grim Reaper approaching. Woodstock from Peanuts sits on the window frame. A hand holding a lit cigarette is sticking out of a drawer. One of the flowers has a smiling face. A sign on the wall says “Sign all forms before dying.”

PANEL 4 – The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland is perched in the tree. A sign on the tree says “FOR SALE: “For sale” sign. Barely used on smoke-free tree. Will trade for weed.” The small print on Spike’s gravestone says “suffered a politically illustrative demise.”

Slashing Medicaid: Your Loss Our Gain | Patreon