Cartoon Saturday

Two weeks into August, three months from the election, and in desperate need of a humor transfusion, that's us ...

Twenty-four people were hospitalized when a JetBlue airliner encountered a patch of severe turbulence on Thursday; GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump tried yet again to walk back a bizarre statement, this time his claim that President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were the founder and co-founder of ISIS; Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton released her income tax records for public scrutiny, increasing the pressure on Donald Trump, who has so far refused to release his own; actor Thomas Gibson, star of the long-running TV show "Criminal Minds," was fired after an incident in which he kicked one of the show's writers over a script disagreement; and in the latest of series of amusement park accidents, a three year-old boy was hospitalized after he fell from a roller coaster at a Pennsylvania park.

This week, in honor of the parts of the economy nobody is talking about fixing, I offer a selection of cartoons dealing with the high cost of medical care.

It's important for medical professionals to bill insurance companies properly ...

Somehow I never quite understood how a government-run health care bureaucracy was different from one run by the insurance companies ...

A new approach to anaesthesia, which will still be billed at the old rates ...

The importance of reading the bill carefully ...

This is the prescription side effect with which I'm most familiar ...

Truth in labeling ...

More side effects ...

A new approach - time-release billing ...

How the television ads for medications ought to go ...

Know what your plan will cover before you agree to the surgery ...

Take two of whatever you can afford and call me in the morning.

It's going to be another steamy hot weekend here in NoVa, so if you have to be outside, be sure to wear a hat, drink plenty of water, use sunscreen, and try to avoid things that get you angry and overheated, like political advertisements. 

Agnes and I will be going to see the Cirque du Soleil show "Kurios" this afternoon, which ought to be amazing, and is held in a huge, air-conditioned tent. Even in the unlikely event the show is not as good as we expect, the air conditioning will make up for it.

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow for Poetry Sunday ... more thoughts then.

Bilbo