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The title of the book is “A Quest
for Health-Reform – A Satirical History”.
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And it is a narrative and analysis of the long struggle for health reform in the United
States, from the beginning of the 20th century to the turn of the 21st century.
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What makes it unusual is that it is told through political cartoons, primarily.
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I've used cartoons in my lectures and in my presentations for years.
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I’ve always found them very effective at conveying messages very succinctly;
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taking complex political circumstances and reducing them to some basic dynamics
that we need to understand and also see recurring patterns.
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I’m a historian of medicine and public health with a special interest
in health policy, both in the United States and globally.
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One of the areas that I especially enjoy teaching
in is the history of US health policy,
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which I present in the context of United States policy and
politics in the various sort of struggles over that.
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By the turn of the 20th century, Health Reform becomes the focus.
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So one of the first cartoons we have in that period, is a cartoon
that appeared in a publication of something called “The Labor Legislation Review”.
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The obvious message of this very clever cartoon is that if the American worker doesn’t
acquire as good and as full an umbrella as the British worker,
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he will soon be exposed to the elements and be beaten down and
may become shorter and less robust than the British worker.
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Fast forward to the post-WWII period - and it’s a cartoon that has
Harry Truman standing at the bedside of a very injured Uncle Sam,
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who is injured and battered by America’s experience in WWII.
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And there is Harry Truman standing next to him and saying in a blithe
and seemingly insensitive way, “So how about a little health insurance now?”.
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Meaning this is more than poor Uncle Sam
should have to take at that point.
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One of my very favorite cartoons is by Matt Wuerker.
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This is a cartoon of President Obama, standing at a chart, acting professorially, talking about
bending down the cost curve in very academic ways, with a pointer, no less.
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In the background is an ominous looking machine, and out of
its loud speakers are coming these familiar words,
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“Fear. Commies. Kill granny. Rage. Violence. Nazis.”
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Mike Luckovich was another brilliant cartoonist, well represented in our book.
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And one of Luckovich’s particular concerns is, what I
would call, “The Paternity of Obama-care”.
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Many people have said that really it could be traced back to
Romney-care in Massachusetts. The fact is, it can be.
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Why political cartoons are so important, in this story, is
that we need to release the tension.
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We need to move beyond the polarized extremities and recalcitrant positions
to a place of reasoned debate and rational discussion.
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The issue is that important and if cartoons can help us get
there, then they are a wonderful medium to do that.
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A production of the University of Rochester.
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