To Understand Health Overhaul, Try A Comic Book

noreply@blogger.com (RCoffield@fsblaw.com)

by Michelle Andrews
Health care reform is no laughing matter, but MIT economist Jonathan Gruber’s new comic book on the subject aims to communicate some pretty complicated policy details in a way that, if not exactly side-splitting, is at least engaging.
In Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works, Gruber steps into the pages of a comic book to guide readers through many of the major elements of the law, including the individual mandate to buy insurance, the health insurance exchanges where people will be able to buy coverage starting in 2014 and how the law tackles controlling health care costs.
He ought to know. Gruber helped develop the Massachusetts health overhaul law and advised the Obama administration on the federal version.
Gruber says he was eager to write a book on the federal law because he believes people don’t like the concept of the overhaul because they don’t understand what’s in it. He points to polling that shows the public endorsing individual aspects of the law.
But the decision to do this in a comic-book style was his publisher’s. “At first, I wasn’t enthusiastic,” Gruber says. “I didn’t think it would be that effective. But the publisher said they […]

Read more this great post here