Health Care Reform: The Graphic Novel

Graphic novels are textbooks: they've proven surprisingly efficient at conveying sophisticated ideas with a well-placed image or two. So, really, it makes sense that someone would attempt to explain the President's controversial health care reform package in picture form. After all, similar projects have  taught graduate-level business-management theory...

...touted the importance of the American manufacturing industry...

...and introduced certain policy-minded readers to the joys of a gun-wielding Maureen Dowd,

and, yes, a certain steampunk ex-governor...

Next, the graphic novel will attempt to condense 2,400 pages of last year's controversial health care reform legislation into illustrated, easily digestible panels. And it's supposed to be marginally entertaining.

At the Boston Herald, Christine McConville profiles health economist Jonathan Gruber, who has tasked himself with creating a graphic novel that explains the meaning of health care reforms. Forgoing a traditional hero or villain, the drama in the nascent novel will take a more realistic bent. "There's a fundamental lack of economic security in our country," Gruber told the Herald. "If you don't get insurance from your employer, you are one bad gene, or one bad car accident away from losing everything."

The novel, which follows in the footsteps of the serious-minded The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, is tentatively titled: "Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It's Necessary, How It Works."

Needless to say, its difficult to properly articulate the nuances of the bill, as the President has discovered when crafting speeches on the topic: