Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 14, 2021

He did it to throw the insurance inspectors off the scent! Firing him will totally screw that up!

American Healthcare, ladies and gentlemen! …Take a bow!

I prefer Darrin Bell’s “Acme Health Insurance, how may I hinder you?”

“Welcome to Acme Health Insurance. If you’re a coyote, press one.”

Single-payer now!

Acme Insurance doesn’t work for a bunch of bacon.

Removing those ribs should have paid for itself.

Everybody knows that Acme Insurance went bankrupt covering Wile E. Coyote

Every comic from the US regularly includes a strip, or story arc about how much health insurance costs, and what isn’t covered. Why don’t you take a look at healthcare systems elsewhere and learn some lessons? State-funded healthcare systems work.

Your coverage was denied because you’ve filed too many claims, Pig.;-D

Health insurance is denied for pigs for pigs is supposed to get all fat and obese omnivorously.

“It was you”

-Uh oh…

When I had cataract surgery, I was out a whole $38 (Canadian) for the prescription eyedrops.

Oh no. It got worse.

Sounds like my employers’ current provider.

That’s sexual discrimination! Why assume it was a guy that screwed up?

It’s Dial one 1 if you are a doctor, dial 2 if you want a prescription, dial 3 if you want to hear lousy music and wait an hour for someone!

Insurance will be the death of us, someday!

Pig should of been using the Chettos insurance plan.

Capitalists should be allowed nowhere near a healthcare system. Profit must absolutely be removed from the equation. #MedicareForAll

It’s not just healthcare. Try to get the home warranty companies to fix a major problem with anything other than a financial Bandaid.

Insurance does everything for you and covers everything. Then you buy it and find it does SQUAT!!

Insurance can be so sleazy.

Make health care a Civil Right!

we have ‘universal’ health care in japan and although the care is often mediocre and sometimes downright criminally bad, it still beats what you don’t have in the u.s. – by a long, long way…

Prior to getting Medicare, our insurance wouldn’t pay for a hernia operation, “unless I end up in the ER”. Same company, with Medicare, what would be a good date for you?

Health insurance companies actually have people on staff whose job is to figure out excuses to not give you what you paid them for. Would we put up with that from ANY other business?

The one surgery they paid for was the Spiral Ham procedure. The Surgeon took his cut.

The only thing wrong with this comic is I would expect Wile E. Coyote to have Acme Insurance

Nightmare

Sounds about right.

Pig should never leave the house. That way, he’ll probably not need health insurance. Then again, living with Rat might force Pig to leave.

Zeus called. He wants Acme to return his lightning bolts!

I have a paperwork job t hat gives me access to company insurance forms and filing for workplace compensation.

I’ve seen cases where the company fought for over 10 years to avoid paying for medical treatments and then the patient dies and the company is ordered to pay the heirs anyway.

Yeah, anytime you come upon a company called Acme, don’t go for it. Or even Ajax (Which is Disney’s equivalent to Acme).

Wow – Pastis is on mean streak stirring things up lately! Thankfully, my teacher’s insurance is NOT like that!

And please stay on the line to take our Survey.

Just sayin’ … YUP !! … :)

People squawk about American healthcare and insurance, but I’ve never had the first problem with mine. And the supplementary care with Medicare has never let me down. If anything, they want me to see more doctors than I’m seeing.

“We’re sorry, but we can’t cover your claim. But because you made a claim we’ll have to raise your premium.”

And as an addition, I wish people in the creative media and online would stop painting getting medical help as impossible without a great insurance plan. There are so many ways to get healthcare without having insurance. Medicaid can be awesome, and many hospitals will eat the expense for indigent patients. I’ve had to tell too many people on Reddit with a major health crisis that they need to be treated because the healthcare is there for them, too. Don’t sit around in misery waiting to die because you don’t think you can afford care.

In 21st Century America I’ve taken to referring to the “health-insurance industry”, not a “health-care system”. That’s because we don’t have any such system in the United States.

In the 1st place, a system is something that’s been designed, something to serve an intended purpose, with all its parts properly constructed to fit together smoothly to produce the desired result, usually as efficiently as possible. (Think computers or automobiles.)

In the 2nd place, it’s not about care, it’s about capitalism — a haphazard scattering of businesses concentrated in areas where the money is, with vast swaths of the nation under- or un-served. By contrast, the US Postal Service and the public schools are true systems that serve every square centimetre of the country.

If we had a true health-care system here in the US — with the highest per-capita expenditures in the world — we’d actually have decent health care for everybody. But we don’t. It’s stupendously excellent, world-class, cutting-edge health care for the privileged few, occasionally adequate and fitful health care for the bulk of people in the middle of the economic spectrum, sincere wishes of good luck for the people between jobs, bad nutrition and emergency-room visits for the poor, and “suck it up or please die quickly” for the desperate.

(to be continued)

I remember when health care costs started rising rapidly. It was in the early 70s, right about when I got my first health insurance plan, $10 a month. I wonder if there is a connection? College costs started rising rapidly with the advent of student loans. Can’t be a coincidence, can it?

I was recently prescribed a medication that has been around for over 50 years, no patents, no ginormous R&D $, costs pennies on the dollar to produce, and yet, for a 30 day supply, CVS pharmacy charged the insurance company almost $700, and I had to pay $370. Health insurance is only healthy for all the people that have their hands in your pockets.

Hmmm, sounds familar.

Ladies and gentlemen: The ’Murican Deathcare System! After I suffered a traumatic brain injury, it took my parents a DECADE of suffering to pay the medical bills!!!

The insurance business is based on not paying claims whenever possible.

The way things are going with medical care, I’m surprised more people don’t want to go back to sacrificing goats.

Big Insurance is putting Mr. Pig in his poke….