Peter Lizdas: Will cartoonist find humor in deaths of those deprived of care?

Glenn Foden’s cartoon on Nov. 14 (Page B3) sought to illustrate yet another moral challenge to “Obamacare” before the Supreme Court, namely whether subsidies for insurance purchased through exchanges managed by the federal government, as opposed to those managed by the states, are allowable. This opening for the anti-ACA forces (which Foden pictures as a hole in a dyke or dam) is based on what many see as an absurdly narrow and cramped reading of the law’s actual wording.

I wonder if Foden can draw a funny picture showing this: Millions of people, many of them first-time buyers of health insurance, now abruptly deprived of that coverage and many suffering or even dying as a result. And the fact that folks in states with exchanges (California, for instance) would continue to reap the benefits of the ACA while residents of the other states won’t, would also be something to get in the picture.

This might be a lot to pack into one frame, but maybe Foden is up to it. Who knew that the SCOTUS would turn out to be a real-life “death panel”? (And there’s another idea for a funny picture. Go for it, Glenn.)

This story was originally published November 18, 2014 at 9:42 AM with the headline "Peter Lizdas: Will cartoonist find humor in deaths of those deprived of care?."