Cartoon in the Albuquerque Journal on September

¶ … cartoon in the Albuquerque Journal on September 15, 2009. The gist of the article revolves around choices in healthcare and who is responsible for those choices. In the first panel, and insurance salesman is talking with an average American asking, "Are you tired of having your health care decisions made by a big, unfeeling corporate bureaucracy?" In the next frame, his wife asks, "Who was that?" -- The husband, holding a brochure entitled Obama Care, responds, "Somebody from a huge, unfeeling government bureaucracy, offering to make our health care decisions."

This is clearly focused on the healthcare debate and the fact that American is under pressure from all sides in its healthcare conundrum. We know that at least twenty percent of America's population has either no insurance or is underinsured -- and that this is the highest percentage in the developed world. This is particularly alarming noting that more money per capita has been spent on healthcare in recent years -- more than any other U.N. member. Additionally, crises with health care are the single largest cause of the tragedy of personal bankruptsy in the nation ("Underinsured in America," 2002; DeNavas-Walt, et.al., 2008).

Clearly, the idea of the cartoon is that the insurance industry is trying desperately to convince the American public that Obama Care is not in their best interests -- in fact, the idea of the insurance industry is that they are likely worried they will be required to provide insurance to certain individuals at rates that are controlled by the government, not by what the market will bear. The pro-side of the debate believes that this is historic to bring more and more people into the fold of healthcare. Economic indicators are such that uninsured and underinsured hurt productivity, the economy, private industry and the competitive nature of the healthcare industry. The anti-Obama side believes the administration's plan is socialist and will expand poor performing services at best (See: Obama's Health-Care Plan, 2012).