Comic treatment for health plan - MIT econ whiz’s hip idea to explain (Commiecare™) overhaul

Boston Herald ^ | 2/08/11 | Christine McConville

[Libloather]

Comic treatment for health plan
MIT econ whiz’s hip idea to explain overhaul
By Christine McConville / The Pulse
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 - Updated 2 hours ago

The MIT economics whiz who crafted President Obama’s national health-care overhaul now plans to explain the complex and controversial plan to the masses — in one long comic book.

Jonathan Gruber, a nationally recognized health economist who devised the economic underpinnings of Obamacare (Gruber hates the term), said his three comic-loving kids encouraged him to use the hip format of the graphic novel — basically an expensive comic published in book form — to tell the story of the complicated plan to 300 million Americans.

Unlike most comic books, Gruber’s won’t have a superhero like Batman or Captain America or a villain like the Joker, he said.

“I’m going to use the facts to tell the story,” Gruber, 45, told the Pulse yesterday. “I’m the narrator guiding the reader through the law. It’ll have lots of pictures and text.”

[Libloather]

Page one - the fines.
Page two - life behind bars.
Page three - how to get a waiver.
The other 1,997 pages will be pics of legal mumbo jumbo.

[businessprofessor]

Those are the appendices. Here are the main chapters.

Chapter 1: price controls
Chapter 2: rationing
Chapter 3: reduced supply of health care
Chapter 4: tax increases
Chapter 5: opportunities for labor cartels

[ClearCase_guy]

Let me say that I like comic books. I own thousands of comic books. I'm a bit of a geek that way. There's nothing wrong with it.

BUT -- if the president of the United States thinks he needs to put his economic policy into the form of a comic book so that people will understand it, then he is arrogantly calling us a nation of dumbasses.

[WOBBLY BOB]

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Unlike most comic books, Gruber’s won’t have ...a villain like the Joker, he said.

Oh, I'm pretty sure that the Joker will make an appearance:

[DrC]

“then he is arrogantly calling us a nation of dumbasses.”

But perhaps he’s merely conceding his entire health plan is a joke? I’m stunned they’d do this, since it will be ripe for satire. My guess is that the riffs on the “official” version are going to get much more widespread play than the original. In short, the effort will backfire. So I’m doubly stunned someone with Gruber’s credentials is willing to invest time in this.

[Seruzawa]

Is this the guy who came up with the “Chevy Runs Deep” slogan? Sounds like it.

[BerniesFriend]

great..something for us all to read while waiting days, months for basic services thanks to socialized medicine..

[mo]

I think the problem here is an “MIT econ whiz” brainchild’s egodream the rest of us are expected to spend our lives suffering from...

[HKMk23]

“MIT econ whiz...”

Well, THERE’S a powerful argument for MIT getting back to their strong suit in Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, and such.

[beezdotcom]

True dat.

[Steven Tyler]

Memo to MIT Guy:
We understand 0bama care just fine.
I can lend you my copy of the Constitution

[KarlInOhio]

The Friedrich Hayek version is more accurate: The Illustrated Road to Serfdom (Short Cartoon Describing Planned Economies)

[KarlInOhio]

I think we are on page seven now.

[KarlInOhio]

“MIT econ whiz...”

I think an MIT economist just whizzed on me and told me it was raining.