Young and Uninsured: Cartoonist Julia Wertz

[bluenelephant]

well... in the uk, all you would have to play for is for your prescription. all prescription medicine costs £7, or you can buy a £100 card that will cover all your prescriptions for a year. the usa kinda sucks. she has to pay 3000 dollars just for being ill? it's just disgusting.

[AristarcoP]

I am so in love with Julia and her artwork...

[4HundredTheCat]

Yes, Julia! Please move to Canada! We love you here! <3 :-)

[looshkin66]

I love the fact that Ms. Julia used to live in portland!!!!!!!!!

[Mgorky]

Mr. Darkfox also told my how he has experience with single payer via the military, that was grate for a sniffle but falls apart for anything serious. And that this is "like" Canada's system. False. Case in point i know another cartoonist with chronic treatable leukemia. Now we have drug subsides, vary from Provence to Provence but he is able to by his medicine for very cheep, enough that he can afford them with his part time day job. drugs that would have cost hundreds a month.

[Mgorky]

My girlfriend came down with appendicitis this past summer, had to have an emergency operation. Cost of that & antibiotics and everything related? $0

Cost of Julie's tests to monitor her lupus in Canada? $0

If it flared up all doctors fees are covered, she may have to pay a very deeply subsidized fee for the drugs, But we're talking cheep as groceries.

The vast majority of illness is covered and timely. very few exceptions.

are there flaws? yes, but compared to the US system? Trivial.

[Mgorky]

A highlight from my "off screen" conversion with Mr Dark Fox, who i've opted to block from now on for being a total jackass.

"Granted, I also think that "death panels" are a legitimately great idea, and wish they were actually being considered, and not just a scare tactic. So, bare that in mind."

i will! thanks.

[naomiology]

I love Julia Wertz! and now I just got to listen to her talk about healthcare in her studio! yayy!

[sayweb]

what a story. It is unbelievable that she is not entitled to health care. This is evil.

[alifstyle]

I already buy your comic last month. You funny! Love you!

- from malaysia

[SHSCurtisa]

This is such a common story for people who free lance for a living. While Julia identifies as a cartoonist we don't really know how she pays her bills and NYC undoubtably has the best opportunity for those types of jobs. Good for her for making her dream come true. I also can't believe the comments that she should intentionally lower her income to meet Medicaid standards. Isn't this supposed to be the land of opportunity? What opportunity is that?

[whalenbrowne]

New York state not new york city.

[Bungy032]

Love Wertz's work and love this video that documents how she is using her work to raise awareness not just about her difficulties but about the general brokenness of the health care system. Too many haters in this comments section want to blame the victim -- she should live somewhere else, have more savings, get a "real" job that comes with insurance. The truth is all of these oh-so-helpful suggestions are more about rationalizing their own intransigence and commitment to the status quo .

[kstraub]

Kudos to everyone saying that she should just somehow have more money. What a great idea! She should just HAVE SAVINGS! Problem solved. Let me take a crack at this cancer nonsense while I'm warmed up.

[Mgorky]

you know us artists, we can always just draw some money!

[MrThedarkfox]

I live in a one-room efficiency, apprx 400ft including bathroom. It is not dank, and my out-of-pocket for rent and non-luxury utilities (elect/water/trash) is under 450. I'm about 45 minutes S of Cleveland, so, I'm sure everything in ohio meets your "the boons". However, the reductions in rent and income by 1/2 were more for simplifying math.

[MrThedarkfox]

See comment about getting job with insurance. And yes, her pay might go down. But, she said she makes about $1200. Rent is $900. The gives $300 of after rent money, which means she'd need to make an extra $100 a month to afford rent+insurance.

Lets say she moves somewhere that rent drops by half, and her income does the same. She now gets medicaid. So while she lost $600 in income, she saves $850 in expenses (450 saved on rent+ 400 insurance).

So, no sympathy on the financial side.

[werty8472]

You, sir, are an idiot. You'd have to live in the boons to find a place that costs 450. Which begs the question: Where DO you live? My bet is either some dank trailer, or some fancy upper-middle class white picket fence monstrosity.

Here's the REAL problem. Health care shouldn't be an economy pack of used douches. And people like you: hicks, and entitled white middle managers, keep everyone else in the crapper. Shiznit just got real, homeboy. Represent.

[MrThedarkfox]

A quick hop on a cost of living calculator tells me some numbers about Raleigh, Durham which I don't think qualifies as 'the boons'. Your rent should decrease 45%, and your income could drop 36% of current levels, putting you at just about the $9k for medicaid.

I'm not a manager, not a hick, and never said health care wasn't broken. But I know how to manage my money, prioritize expenses, and separate wants from needs.

Represented.

[werty8472]

Hee, I like you, you're fun.

But here's the biggest tiff. You need to have all your calculations in order BEFORE anything happens. Most people are going to guess that most things dealing with- what was that, mouth surgery- are atypical or cosmetic. My guess is that's why both the insurance plans did not include it. How are you supposed to guess that you're going to get one of the things "not offered" by the company, or are you suggesting that people should take out multiple plans to cover?

[MrThedarkfox]

Again, simple. Its called having savings for unexpected run ins with fate instead of spending your cash by the end of the month. You can't fully plan for it, but you can take steps to reduce what it'll do to you.

Medical bills are also some of the most lenient, flexible, and negotiable.

In this case, its extra idiotic. She has a chronic disease and didn't want to budget around insurance. That is something you can plan on, a chronic disease flaring back up.

[werty8472]

The fact that she has a chronic disease doesn't disprove that she couldn't have planned it, because by being diagnosed with said disease, she gets to have the problem of having a pre-existing condition, which limits the availability of insurance companies that will allow you. As for savings... Well, "cartoonist" speaks for itself.

[MrThedarkfox]

I believe medicaid covers your regardless. The complaint was to qualify for that, you needed to make $900/mo or less, and that is what she pays for rent (actually, kudos to her for finding something in NYC for $900/mo). There is a solution to this problem, move somewhere where rent is less than $900/mo. She can then qualify for medicaid and be covered.

[MrThedarkfox]

As for "being a cartoonist", she lives in the most expensive city in America.

She got the short end of the fate stick with lupus, that is awful and my heart goes out to her. But she is crying about no health insurance while living in the #1 most expensive city in the USA. She is making a decision, that living in NYC is more important than making sure she can pay her medical bills. Ergo, she gets no sympathy from me.

Health care is broken, but this is just a case of dumbassery and "BUT I WANT IT"

[werty8472]

I actually agree with you on this point.

But! The problem with looking at things realistically is that if she goes and gets a shitty place in a shitty town for a low amount of money, can save money for Medicaid, she loses her ability to be a figurehead for a cause that we've allowed to continue for far too long. The problem with figureheads is that they can never actualize into the ideal that we use them for, but without them, we couldn't convince the general public to do anything.

[werty8472]

The reality is that unless we debase this equally faulty system that we just accept as an unalterable fact, this medical nightmare we've wandered into, then we end up all-the-worse. People shouldn't have to worry about their bodies so much that they become unable to live "the life". Health care should NOT be this expensive, and it shouldn't get to screw people over when it is financially inadvisable for them to take them on. Bandwagon bullcrap bandwagon bullcrap. But still, it's true.

[MrThedarkfox]

I'd be less likely to question a cause with figureheads who made smart(er) decisions, that's all I'm saying. (also check your messages)

[Mgorky]

Wait, when did this become about sympathy for Julie rather than a broken healthcare system? @MrThedarkfox

Thing is if you DO want to make it as an cartoonist professorially, you start young, and you go to the prime city for cartooning and publishing, and thats NY baby.

So, she should just give that up, go somewhere isolated & cheep, resign herself to equally overpriced healthcare, with fewer cheep cliques handy, & not talk about how really it's a broken system no mater where you are....right?

[MrThedarkfox]

@Mgorky

Webcartoonist, watch at least some of the video. The crazy thing is, you can get on to the internet in places...that aren't NYC. Shocking, I know.

This is not a case of a broken system, this is a case of BUT I WANT IT.

[Mgorky]

Funny thing if you listen to her, she calls her self a CARTOONIST, and she has a BOOK, as in print. @MrThedarkfox - I've met her, filmed her on panels about getting published, and trying to make a living from her work.

This is a case of you trying to hold your dismissive argument DESPITE the facts.

[MrThedarkfox]

@Mgorky Many webcartoons publish books. You don't need to live in NYC to get books published. Again, case of I WANT.

[Mgorky]

I live in Montreal, and getting published is a HELL of a lot easier if your in NY buddy @MrThedarkfox - trust me, I've been at it 20 years. Google Salgood Sam. If i could afford it i'd be there too.

And again, you sir, are missing the damn point. Read my first tree post again, and stop just trying to be right. If you agree the program is broken, then your for getting it fixed. right?

[MrThedarkfox]

@Mgorky

Yes. there are plenty of cases of horror stories where the system has failed people. This. Is. Not. One. Of. Them.

Stop trying to be right.

[Mgorky]

Hah! @MrThedarkfox - so hypocritical. I just called you on that, trying to be right.

This is not a "horror story", it's "Young and Uninsured" - it's a small antidote about one slightly famous person's issue with the system. And it applies to anyone in her income bracket in NY, Your the one trying to make it into things it's not. It's not her sob story, it's not about a lazy lucky artist, it's not about a horror story. it's about this - 2:33 - and that's the point.

[MrThedarkfox]

@Mgorky

Hm, yes, almost as if I was calling you on it as well...

anyway, you've got mail, Chief.

[Mgorky]

i disagree, a public conversation has far more value than privet, @MrThedarkfox - because it is viewed by more than just the two involved.

In your letter you made some fair points, but still insist on playing this off as a sob story about having sympathy for Julie. But thats not how it's represented. It is a flaw that by having a pre-existing condition, she's stuck with few options. Left having to choose between chosen career and some safer path to what, cater to a broken healthcare system?

[Mgorky]

she's not the worst case @MrThedarkfox - that does not make her an invalid case or unqualified to bring up the subject in public.

[Mgorky]

and by the by @MrThedarkfox - no such thing as "Webcartoonist"

just cartoonists.

[Mgorky]

if you mean, "i want a carer in my chosen profession" sure, and what's your point? @MrThedarkfox - again this is not about her having a sob story, it about anyone making 1200 a month in NY, she happens to draw comics and is there to try to establish her career, but being a cartoonist in irrelevant to the content of this story.

[MrThedarkfox]

@Mgorky

This is about peoplein NYC making 1200/mo with a known medical condition, making decisions that exclude them from federal aid. Her condition was not shock, she know about it, and made a choice, to eschew stability and attempting to find an employer who will provide health insurance. This is not being failed by the system.

Check your messages, I'm weary of dealing with your shenanigans in 500 characters or less.

[Mgorky]

my shenanigans? @MrThedarkfox condescend much?

"it's crazy to pay to be sick. "

You assume it was just her decisions that exclude them from federal aid. It's also that there's not a hell of a lot of job options out there now, that you have a system that precludes coverage if you're in a gap like that at all. No where else in the first world is this so. Your being simplistic and dismissive. .

[MrThedarkfox]

TL:DNW; dumbass screws themselves over with lack of planning ability, now can't afford new apple products.

Here's a crazy thought, move some where that rent isn't $900 a month. Or get a job that provides insurence. You're living in one of the most expensive places in America, while working a job as a webcartoonist that you could do from anywhere. No sympathy from me on financial side. But I feel bad for anyone with a chronic disease.

[jonathondalton]

New York has the unique ability to provide numerous work opportunities in illustration and is exactly where she should be living. Moving might entail a pay cut, not just a cut in rent. Good on her for managing to make as much money as she does.

$400 a month for health care is a ridiculous amount to have to pay. No other country in the world has such a high minimum payment to get access to health care- even when you include costs paid through taxes.

[Mgorky]

News flash, @MrThedarkfox - no one has a "job" as a web cartoonist. That's what she does. Her day job is something else, and she's in NY because if you want to transition from being a web cartoonist doing it for the love, to being a published author making a living from your work, you need to be in the hart of the publishing industry. Re; NY. That's her personal story.

[Mgorky]

But, the point of th clip is not a sob fest for poor Julie, it's about your healthcare. That it's broken to have the min set at the same as cheep rent in a given city -should be relative to local cost of living - that you have to pay for it privatively of through a employer rather than pool costs in taxes & pay collectively for a higher average standard like most 1st world countries. And so on.

Forest for the trees dark fox, she's using her small fame to help raise awareness, not pleading woe.

[MrThedarkfox]

@Mgorky Pete Abrams, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, Randy Milholland, Jeph Jaques, Micheal Poe, *shudder* Tim B^Uckley, just off the top of my head. They all make their cash from web cartooning, this is their profession. And, I see no mention of other job. So, I'll believe she pulls $1200 from comic/merch/comissions. Through the internet.

Again, health care is broken. But this is not one of those cases. This is someone who likes NYC more than they like their health.

[Mgorky]

you don't know jack about what your talking about. I'm a comic artist working possessionally for 20 years. The people named there are almost the ONLY ones making a living at it via the web, and not from books collecting their work.

watched it again, 4th time. @ 0:16 there's a shot of a pile of her PRINTED book and zines. The title says CARTOONIST, she calls herself a cartoonist and mentions her comic, not webcomic. At no point does "Webcartoonist" appear. It's not how she makes $1200 a month.

[freeetime]

I hope everything works out for Julia. As a fan of hers I'd hate to see someone I admire so much be put through this ridiculousness.

[VivekRajcoomar]

welcome to america

[NYer79]

nooooo; the main problem with the heath care system in this county is the HIGH COST of healthcare, not from the insurers but by the providers of healthcare themselves, i.e. physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical. these high costs CHARGED by these entities are naturally passed onto the consumer either directly or indirectly, i.e. insurance companies. stop the greed, bring the costs DOWN and you'll see healthcare much more affordable in this country, with or wthout a national healthcare system.

[mtgmatador]

I feel this girls pain, I'm unemployed myself! However, I don't think that taking money from others to give it to me is fair in any way, I do believe the problem IS what this lady calls a solution: Government meddling, I think that if government aloud the free markets to work health insurance would be much cheaper, and the tax payer wouldn't be stuck with the tab of all the gvmt subsidies!

[colemckelvie]

i know it's horrible, but she's a looker, she could sell herself and make that 3000 in like 1 night

[freeetime]

seriously?

[soundmoneyfan]

We all know that the employer based health insurance system is the problem. People with brains know that the employer based system is a function of our tax code, so why is there no discussion about that? Why do you force feed me this BS on the subject as the House passed a "healthcare bill" that Dennis Kucinich rightfully called more corporate welfare? The lack of honest discussion is only going to make this country worse.