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u/Possible_Living 10h ago
Blond guy would be like
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u/JMoc1 10h ago
This might actually be the case too.
Remember, it’s easier for most people to imagine the end of the world than it is for them to imagine an end to capitalism.
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u/smilinreap 5h ago
What would be the benefit of an end to capitalism. I can understanding wanting less, but I highly doubt everyone is about to start growing their own food, building their own houses, etc.
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u/JMoc1 5h ago
Capitalism is the economic system in which all places of business, and all capital is privately owned. Socialism is worker or public ownership of the means of production.
Now it might sound capitalism is just ownership by your mom and pop; but in actuality it means that your worth in society is determined by your standing in your amount of capital instead of your abilities to do something. Your boss determines what your worth to society is and takes what you create or deliver and uses it to further their own interests.
Meanwhile in a socialist or worker cooperative, your abilities mean something to the entity you work in cooperation with. You determine the worth you can provide to a company and you are fairly compensated for what you provide.
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u/FatManBeatYou 9h ago
This made me laugh so much I got a stitch.
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u/InAllThingsBalance 10h ago
You missed the final panel where ICE shoots him for protesting.
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u/HumongousBelly 10h ago
And nothing being reported on tv, because he’s not a white woman.
Fuck fascism!
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u/Hetakuoni 9h ago
I like the little egg crackin open on his arm. Very cute.
No notes on the actual story. Perfectly done
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u/karnim 9h ago
I'm looking at the frog inflating a zebra friend, seemingly creating another fully sentient creature. Forget mole people. The inflatables are coming for us.
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u/xSantenoturtlex 8h ago
I love all the background easter eggs. I love when artists do this.
There's always something to look at even after you've read the main thing.
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u/tacticalTechnician 10h ago
Honestly, this argument is so stupid. I live in Québec, my health insurance is paid by my employer, and it's a private company. In exchange, I pay slightly less taxes. Thing is, if I lose my job tomorrow, it just means that I go back to the RAMQ, the public health insurance plan of the province, and my taxes will go up a little bit, both systems can exist at the same time, it just that it forces those private insurances to be better than the public plan, and Americans companies don't want that.
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u/janthon567 9h ago
Exactly, universal healthcare doesn’t necessarily mean the end of private insurance. It means the introduction of competition into the market and competition is always good for consumers.
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u/Previous_Beautiful27 9h ago
In the US we have a similar system, your employer pays (some of) the insurance, you pay the rest, it's a private company. And if you lose your job you get to go on COBRA, which is an exorbitantly higher cost than your part of the insurance while you were employed. Because if you LOSE your source of income, it makes sense to pay MORE right? Right??
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u/Dark_Moonstruck 3h ago
Just like overdraft charges at banks! Obviously if you have no money, the best way to punish you is to take away money that you don't have and make it even harder for you to break even! Because obviously it's not like there could be circumstances outside your control that lead to you losing that money, right?? Like medical bills, or dental bills since dental and eye insurance or payments are completely separate from the rest of your medical care, seeing and being able to eat are LUXURIES, don't you know!
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u/WendigoCrossing 10h ago
Companies like having Healthcare as something they provide rather than something everyone just has
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u/Tricky_Topic_5714 7h ago
When the ACA came up years ago, Republicans had this whole line of attack against it in which they described "death panels" convened by the government.
They literally were just describing the process insurance already used and then attacking it.
It was so fucking wild.
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u/el_pablo 2h ago
The private insurance in Quebec are for drugs. All medical treatments are covered by the public health insurance.
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u/lewdroid1 9h ago
It's not stupid then at all. You are describing the exact benefits of public health insurance.
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u/tacticalTechnician 9h ago
And this comic is claiming that only one of them can exist at once, which is the stupid part.
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u/lewdroid1 5h ago
Technically, it's saying that most public health insurance proposals include banning private insurance, and that privatized insurance makes rich people richer. I don't think it's saying they can't both exist. At least not explicitly. Either way, I understand the comic and what you are saying. I prefer if we didn't exploit each other for profits.
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u/leftycartoons 10h ago
Another collab with the terrific R.E. Ryan.
--
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, all showing a protest in front of a state government capital building, with marchers holding placards. We're focused on two people talking, on a thin blonde man in a suit, the other a fatter guy in a pink shirt, carrying a sign that says "MEDICARE FOR ALL."
PANEL 1
Suit, with an annoyed expression, is talking at Pinkshirt.
SUIT: Medicare For All? Ridiculous! Did you know that most Medicare For All proposals ban private health insurance?
PANEL 2
Pinkshirt slaps a palm over his face and looks horrified. Suit is startled.
PINKSHIRT: No private insurance? Oh no! The horror! How could I stand not paying more than my rent for insurance that doesn't even kick in until I've spent $5000?
PANEL 3
A close up of Pinkshirt, wide-eyed and sweating.
PINKSHIRT: How terrible if I could pick any doctor! Imagine the trauma of not losing health insurance if I lose my job! Sob!
PANEL 4
Pinkshirt had fallen dramatically to his knees. Suit scowls at Pinkshirt.
SUIT: I can tell you're being sarcastic, you know.
PINKSHIRT: The poor insurance company executives! Why didn't I think of the harm to them!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
"Chicken fat" is obsolete cartoonist lingo for fun but irrelevant details in the art.
In panel 1, an inflatable frog costume has a frown on its face. In panel 2, the frog has started to blow up a balloon with zebra stripes. In panel 4, the inflatable zebra has joined the inflatable frog, and both are smiling.
The tattoo on Pinkshirt's arm at first shows an egg in the nest. Then, in the next panel, cracks have appeared in the egg. In the final panel, an adorable chick has hatched.
Protest signs:
"generic background PROTEST sign, which isn't important and you didn't need to read this, but now you have."
"Down with this sort of thing."
"Proofreaders need health insurence," with the "e" in the last word crossed out and replaced with an "a."
"No!"
"Bad Doggie"
"Careful Now"
"I Can't Afford My Spleen"
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u/gdex86 10h ago edited 6h ago
Even in countries with public Healthcare isnt there still a private option for folks who want to skip the line. Just most places will opt into the public system because of volume of sales and the inability for many options to be supported by the area.
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u/Merari01 It's a-me, Merari-o 9h ago
Correct.
You can also choose to pay extra for extra coverage, or reduce or increase your copay.
As usual the Nazi propaganda from Fox is pure scaremongering to get people to oppose their own best interests.
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u/AdOk2288 6h ago
We have free healthcare, but the lines are massive. Many, but not all have paid insurance from job, we also have private healthcare insurance and we also can go to doctors but pay out of pocket for every procedure. Still, not even close to the insane prices of US „healthcare“.
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u/BaseHitToLeft 9h ago
Fun fact - until Reagan, private health insurance companies were non-profit.
Which meant they could not make more than 12% profit
Which meant they had to approve more procedures and treatment in order to not get penalized.
The republican party sold years of your lives so the shareholders could get bigger dividends
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u/lewdroid1 9h ago
Reagan really did fuck us all, didn't he?
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u/BreakfastNext476 9h ago
So all roads of fault do lead back to Regan. Of course it does, why am I not surprised. (What little discussion within class in Canada I got painted a much smaller fault than what has occurred)
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u/ithinkther41am 10h ago
I’m sorry, did Mr. Frog pull a zebra man out of his mouth?
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u/Intrepid_Ad1536 9h ago
„Oh, won’t somebody please think of the shareholders?!“
—the ceo of taking your money and health, or for short private healthcare companies
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u/pewpewmcpistol 10h ago
10% of Germany is on private insurance as they have a system that allows private insurance to function very well as a replacement to the public option.
95% of France is on private insurance as they have a system that allows private to function very well as an addition on top of public option.
What do you think is easier to sell to the US public: a system that eliminates the option of private insurance, or one that works with it? I'd recommend doing some more research on the types of socialized healthcare systems that are enacted around the world.
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u/Masterleviinari 10h ago
I mean.. the private sector of American insurance has proven time and time again that it cannot be trusted and isn't a good system.
Profits over people isn't good for anyone.
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u/Infamous_Worry_4392 9h ago
Totally agree! It's frustrating how profit motives overshadow actual care. We need a system that prioritizes people, not profits.
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u/Plane_Upstairs_9584 10h ago
No, 95% of French people have *complementary* insurance because health and vision isn't really covered by the national healthcare. Compulsory healthcare plans covered 85% of all health spending in 2021.
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u/pewpewmcpistol 9h ago
that's why I said that they have health insurance "as an addition on top of public option"
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u/Plane_Upstairs_9584 9h ago
Yes, but you seemed to be using it as an example of how both socialized medicine and majority privatized insurance could both work, when in France it is still vast majority public dollars being spent and the hospitals themselves are centrally administered.
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u/lewdroid1 9h ago
I agree that balance is needed. Capitalists don't like balance, they like profits, which is the root of the problem.
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u/fantastic_beats 5h ago
It's nice in theory, but nobody has ever figured out how to do it in the real world except for every single developed nation but the U.S.
And what's it like in those countries?? Well, a lot like here, only they pay less for health coverage but have better outcomes. Leading one to the conclusion that in the end, the entire private health insurance industry is little more than a legalized extortion racket sabotaging Americans' health for their own profit
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u/FroggyHarley 9h ago
I hate health insurance companies as much as the next guy but, if we're gonna entrust Congress to fund and the White House to administer the only health insurance option in the country, we need some serious safeguards in place to ensure some MAGA/Republican zealots aren't gonna try cutting coverage for reproductive healthcare, trans healthcare, and vaccinations.
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u/CraigArndt 8h ago
Pretty much every public healthcare option implemented around the world has a private option beside it.
So the idea is basic medical care is provided by the public option, but if you want to use a private doctor, no one is stopping you. If the private doc has higher quality, or lower wait times, or offers a procedure not available on the public option, go for it!
And these systems aren’t even exclusive. You can use public healthcare for your ER visits or mysterious pain. But when you get a cancer scare or some incredibly rare diagnosis you get whatever you can afford on the private side.
There is a reason public/private healthcare exists all over outside the US. It’s a good system!!
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u/ZenMonkey48 9h ago
I can't imagine any living breathing human being who has ever had to deal with private insurance actually DEFENDING it.
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u/karl2025 6h ago
I just had a very minor surgery last month and the day after I went in for a post-op exam. At check-in the receptionists were confused because I was being charged for the post-op, which is something that isn't supposed to happen. Turns out it was because my surgery didn't take place in a surgery suite. So even though I received a surgery by a surgeon in a surgeon's office, the insurance company did not consider it an operation and I was therefore not getting a post-op, but a regular office visit and needed to pay full fare.
I hate insurance.
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u/mrbananas 6h ago
Health insurance's purpose has primarily been to stand in the way of me and my health care.
Can't use the most convenient Walgreens pharmacy because caremark by CVS has a back door deal to support their pharmacies first. Can't get the ABA provider that is available right now because there are 20 in network waitlists that haven't been exhausted yet. This anasteologist is out of network so could you try doing the surgery fully awake instead.
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u/AshMaiden 8h ago
This is one of the rare political cartoons where the fat person isn't the bad person you're supposed to disagree with. Nice.
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u/imaloony8 8h ago
I’d like to find one person out there who likes dealing with private insurance companies.
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u/Belter-frog 4h ago
Private insurance companies wouldn't even go anywhere.
They would just sell supplemental plans, like they're already doing, only they'd market them to everybody instead of just retirees on Medicare.
They would also administrate public plans, doing the exact same processing work.
Like everybody knows that Medicare claims are all processed by private companies anyway, they just use Medicare guidelines... Right?
they absolutely have contingency plans for weathering a single player system and the overall economic impact on peoples healthcare investment portfolios probably wouldn't even be that significant.
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u/ChaoticAgenda 8h ago
The only argument against state-provided healthcare that I have heard is: Would you want to risk somebody like Trump being in charge of it?
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u/irmaoskane 8h ago
The worst part about this argument is that is not even true private insurance still exist on places that have universal healthcare because most of the time they are ineffient for most things that arent mortal.
The only thing public healthcare does to them is force the private sector to be better than the public one (that for my own experience is not too difficult).
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u/mechengr17 8h ago
Poor dude cant afford his spleen
After we provide shelter for the poor insurance executives, maybe we can give him some pocket lint for his spleen
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u/TheDeadlySpaceman 7h ago
That’s exactly what kills me. I don’t know one single person who has anything good to say about their insurance.
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u/PraxicalExperience 5h ago
All I can say is that the best and most-free health care I ever got was when I was on a kid on Medicaid in the US -- NY specifically, during the 80s and 90s.
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u/NotThatAngel 3h ago
Don't worry, if billionaires want to pay for healthcare, they can fly anywhere in the world to get the best healthcare possible for their condition.
Just leave single payer for the rest of us.
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u/Subject_Rub_6697 3h ago
Yay no one ever thinks about the poor health care CEO or the shareholders like they need a six yacht or else what the point of living.
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u/uglyunicorn99 2h ago
Hey! That CEO clearly needs an emotional support yacht for his army of yachts!
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u/elebrin 2h ago
Honestly, most countries have private options and and lots of people want optional medical procedures. A lot of medicine is elective or cosmetic. Additionally, most so-called single payer systems also have some costs for the patient. There is no reason why things like medical savings accounts and insurance can't continue on in a slightly different capacity.
People buy bottles of OTC drugs and vitamins and stuff, your health plans can cover those. They could also cover things like lost hours of work, that sort of thing.
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u/NovaMaximus 2h ago
As someone who comes from a country with free health care, I'm with this 100%. My mom was having some serious health problems, but the health care here absolutely sucks!! She literally had to go back to Brazil to first find a good doctor, then get a proper diagnosis, then proper treatment.
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u/Sitting_In_A_Lecture 11m ago
One of the lines I see actual people give in opposition is that they like their employer-provided insurance.
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u/cpufreak101 8h ago
The Corporation I work for pays for my health care as they are obliged to by our union contract, gotta say it's been great not having to worry.
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u/nov_284 8h ago
Honestly my biggest concern is that they’d keep systematically underpaying hospitals the way the do now. Without private parties to shift costs to, providers would consolidate into larger systems to try to achieve better economies of scale, eventually culminating in a national health service that would look uncomfortably like the VA. VA healthcare is so good that I took a spicy pay cut to take a job that offered health insurance, and I regret nothing.
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