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A common objection to single-payer health care in the US is that it would lead to health care being rationed. And I wonder, in what parallel universe do they live where the US isn’t already rationing health care?
Americans who can’t afford health care get pushed to the back of the line – or entirely out of the line. That’s rationing.
From an article on the Commonwealth Fund‘s website:
While other countries may ration because of national budget constraints and supply-side factors, the United States’ lack of access to comprehensive insurance and affordable care represent a de facto form of rationing that leads people to delay getting care or going without it entirely. […]
In a recent Commonwealth Fund survey, fewer than one of 10 patients in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, or Sweden reported skipping needed care or treatments because of cost. This contrasts sharply with the U.S., where one of three Americans reported the same. […] While nearly one of five U.S. adults skip doses or do not fill a prescription because of costs, just 2 percent to 9 percent of patients do so in the other countries discussed here.
We shouldn’t be arguing over if we’re going to have rationing, because we are. Rationing is basically unavoidable. The real argument should be over what form our rationing will take. And our current form – rationing health care by class – is particularly cruel and inefficient.
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For me, drawing for a living is an odd combination of going “wow, this looks really great” and also despairing “why can’t I draaaaw?” And often that’s over the exact same artwork! I’m continually frustrated by my lack of drawing ability and also a total egotist who loves looking at my own work.
This may be a necessary contradiction. If I didn’t see the (glaring enormous horrible) flaws in my drawings, I wouldn’t have any drive to improve. But if I didn’t get pleasure from my own drawings, doing this for a living would be horrible. So it’s about achieving some sort of balance.
In this cartoon, I think my favorite bit of drawing is that we can see the street stripes through the hole in the chest of the character in panel two. I think it looks neat and also makes it more visually obvious that he’s got a hole there.
I’m also pleased that no two characters in the strip are wearing the same shoes – although in a way that’s a waste of my drawing time, since it really doesn’t make a difference to how readers experience the comic.
I’m least pleased by everything in panel one. Her hair looks stiff and wrong and not-hair-like, and the background is lacking in detail or personality – it could be a stage set. And although I worked hard at the dog – I spent more time trying to get that dog right than I did on any other figure in this cartoon – I’m still not happy with it.
Should I go back and redraw it? Or say good enough, move on, there are other panels to work on? For panel one, I said “good enough.” It’s pleasant looking enough and it carries the storytelling.
In panel three, on the other hand… I originally drew the seated character with a leg that was bent in too many places.
But I began worrying that readers would miss that detail. I mean, some readers will always miss some details – that’s unavoidable – but the fewer readers miss important storytelling details, the better. In the end, although I’d finished everything but the colors, I erased the leg and redid it. I think the new version is more obvious.
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The week I was working on this cartoon, I was waiting at a bus stop and noticed a single boot lying on the ground. This happens now and then, and I always wonder how someone came to lose a single boot. As you can see, that was on my mind when I drew the boot in panel four.
Those are the sort of details that I don’t expect most readers to notice. They’re there as a sort of reward for readers who like looking closely for details. The cartoonist term for these little, funny, but irrelevant details is “chicken fat.” The term was coined by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder, two of the best cartoonists who have ever laid ink to paper.
In an interview, Elder said:
I don’t really recall where we first started referring to, what Harvey called, my “chatchkies”, extra gags, as “chicken fat.” But I think the term just came out of what we both knew were the parts of the strip that gave it more flavor but did very little to advance the storyline. That’s what chicken fat does…it advances the flavor of the soup and, as we all know now, too much chicken fat will kill you!
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Thanks to those of you who support my patreon and making it possible for me to do things like draw cartoons and feed my cat (although if you asked my cat, she would tell you that she’s never been fed, never EVER not even once, but my cat is a liar.)
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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows a different scene.
PANEL ONE
A woman with spikey hair is standing in her living room. She’s holding a hand to her cheek, and lots of cartoon “pain stars” are floating near her cheek. She’s wide-eyed and unhappy looking as she speaks into her cell phone. A dog sits on the floor nearby, looking at the woman adoringly.
WOMAN: What’s the point of an insurance plan that doesn’t cover dental?
VOICE FROM PHONE: We only cover essential treatments. Teeth aren’t that important.
PANEL TWO
Two people, a man and a woman, are on a city sidewalk. They are both looking with bewilderment at an enormous, unnaturally perfect hole in the man’s chest (it also goes through his tee shirt).
There’s litter on the sidewalk, including a newspaper called “The Cartoon Times” with a big headline saying “Man Reads Background Gag.” (I’d normally use an androgynous word like “person,” but the space was so tiny I had to opt for the three-letter word. :-p )
WOMAN: You should see a doctor about that.
MAN: Too expensive. Maybe it’ll get better by itself?
PANEL THREE
A woman wearing a black tank top and jeans sits on a sidewalk. She’s got very short, spikey hair and tattoos (including tattoos of Snoopy and Lucy). One of her legs has fallen off mid-calf; she’s got a bone sticking out, and her foot and the lower half of her calf (still in jeans) are lying on the street in front of her.
She grinning, trying to be cheerful, but she’s wide-eyed and sweating. She’s holding out one palm in a “no need” gesture.
Two emergency medical technicians in uniform are staring at her, surprised. In the background we can see their ambulance. Near the top of the ambulance, the company’s motto is printed: “We move broken peeps.”
WOMAN: I can’t afford an ambulance. I’ll just walk.
PANEL FOUR
Two women walk through a hilly park. There are trees in the background, a bush in the foreground, and a tree stump (Woodstock from Peanuts is standing on the stump). A single abandoned boot lies on the ground.
The first woman, blond with neck-length hair and waring shorts and a button-up short sleeved shirt, is in a panic. The second woman, wearing a hoodie and flip-flops, is rolling her eyes.
FIRST WOMAN: Universal government-paid health care? That’d be HORRIBLE! We’d have to start RATIONING HEALTH CARE!
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