Cartoon Saturday

Welcome to June, which somehow promises to be not significantly better than May, unfortunately ...

A Navy exhibition pilot with the famous Blue Angels aerobatic team was killed when his F-18 fighter crashed at a show in Tennessee, while an Air Force pilot with the famous Thunderbirds team escaped injury when his F-16 fighter crashed after a flyover at the Air Force Academy's graduation ceremony; a former UCLA student shot and killed one of his professors after apparently shooting and killing his estranged wife, and police found a "kill list" in his home with names of other people he intended to murder; a woman in Phoenix, Arizona, is suspected of stabbing her three children to death, hiding their bodies in a closet and then trying to kill herself; famed boxing champion Cassius Clay, better known by his adopted name of Muhammad Ali, has died at age 74; and some priceless works of art have been moved from Paris' Louvre Museum for safekeeping because of flood waters caused by torrential rains that have caused the Seine River to overflow its banks.

This week, in honor of my ongoing struggles with the bureaucracy and financing of health care for broken down old farts, our cartoons feature takes on paying for your medical treatment ...

I hope this a lot ...

It's all part of the planning on the doctor's part ...

I think I can afford a Yugo plan ...

This is called the Haberdashery Plan for managing medical care costs ...

Did you ever read the very, very fine print in the itemization of your doctor's bill? You'd be amazed at what you find ...

This is part of those Yugo plans we mentioned earlier ...

I sometimes (okay, I always) wonder about the propriety and value of advertising drugs on television ...

You are always treated at some point by specialists ...

Retirement plans based on the HMO model ...

Finally, this one isn't, strictly speaking, about the cost of medical care, but in the midst of the presidential campaign, I just couldn't pass it up ...

Well, there you have it ... my attempt to find levity in a pretty yucky situation. But at least it's the weekend, and I'll have a chance to relax from the past week's stress of doing not too much, being retired and all. Mike and John have trained me well.

Have a good day and a great weekend, and come back tomorrow for Poetry Sunday. More thoughts then.

Bilbo