healthcare
Explanation
The Joke
This comic is an unusually long and largely serious entry for SMBC. Rather than a traditional joke setup and punchline, it is a semi-autobiographical editorial comic in which Zach Weinersmith discusses the real struggles of healthcare for freelancers and self-employed people in the United States. The comic is framed as a retelling of a meeting Zach and his wife recently attended in their small county in West Virginia, where local freelancers and small business owners gathered to discuss healthcare costs.
The comic describes how the price for family insurance has become roughly $24,000 per year in their county, a figure that is literally unsustainable for individual freelancers. It details the various strategies people use to cope -- such as keeping income artificially low to qualify for subsidies, or one spouse taking a corporate job solely for insurance benefits. The comic explains how this system stifles entrepreneurship and small business formation, as people are afraid to leave corporate jobs because they would lose their health coverage. Zach notes the irony that America values individualism and entrepreneurship, yet its healthcare system actively discourages both.
The very end contains the closest thing to a punchline: after this long, earnest discussion of healthcare policy, one character asks politicians and anyone with influence to "please make this work for businesses," and the other responds simply "Pretty please." A disclaimer at the bottom notes that the characters at the meeting were not intended to resemble real people.
The Humor
This is one of SMBC''s rare "editorial" comics where humor takes a back seat to genuine social commentary. The minimal humor that exists comes from the understated desperation of the final "pretty please" -- after dozens of panels documenting a genuine crisis affecting millions of Americans, the best the characters can muster is a polite request. The comic is notable for breaking the usual SMBC format to deliver a heartfelt, personal argument about how the American healthcare system punishes exactly the kind of independent, entrepreneurial people the country claims to celebrate.
References
The comic references the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) marketplace and the real challenges facing self-employed Americans who must purchase individual health insurance. The setting in a small West Virginia county reflects the Weinersmiths'' real-life residence at the time. The escalating premiums for individual market insurance, the income-manipulation strategies to qualify for ACA subsidies, and the phenomenon of "job lock" (staying in corporate employment primarily for health benefits) are all well-documented issues in American healthcare policy.