For the Love of Health Care and Health Policy

For the Love of Health Care and Health Policy

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A colorful cartoon drawing shows a hand holding a postcard. The postcard image is of a banner reading “LOW-COST LAND” and being held by two cherry-red Cupids. Below the Cupids are prescription bottles and a shopping bag decorated with hearts. Gold coins with wings decorate the background. Two U.S. passports are visible tucked behind the postcard.
(Oona Tempest/KFF Health News)

Nothing melts our hearts like a health policy valentine. Readers made us swoon this season, writing poetic lines about prescription drug pricing, medical debt, primary care shortages, and more. 

Here are some of our favorites, starting with the grand prize winner and first runner-up, whose entries were each turned into a cartoon by staff illustrator Oona Tempest. 

1st Place

A colorful cartoon drawing shows a hand holding a postcard. The postcard image is of a banner reading “LOW-COST LAND” and being held by two cherry-red Cupids. Below the Cupids are prescription bottles and a shopping bag decorated with hearts. Gold coins with wings decorate the background. Two U.S. passports are visible tucked behind the postcard. A speech bubble coming from the person holding the card and passports reads, “Darling, this Valentine’s Day / let’s grab our passports / and fly away to someplace, / where the same drugs cost a fraction / of what they do in the States.”
(Illustration: Oona Tempest/KFF Health News; poem: Jennifer Reck)

Darling, this Valentine’s Day,
let’s grab our passports
and fly away to someplace,
where the same drugs cost a fraction
of what they do in the States.

— Jennifer Reck 

Runner-Up 

A four-panel, black and white comic. The first panel reads, “I saw the doctor for a check, I had a lump in my right breast,” and shows a woman standing nervously beside her doctor. The second panel reads, “Two weeks for the answer,” and shows the same woman sitting at a computer, nervously clicking a refresh button on her email, which reads, “NO NEW MAIL.” The third panel reads, “It wasn’t cancer,” and shows the woman triumphantly holding up her phone with the test result while crying tears of joy. The fourth and final panel reads, “So instead of death, I’m in debt,” and shows her holding a medical bill in her hands, which tremble as she reads from it, “Your BIG BILL.”
(Illustration: Oona Tempest/KFF Health News; poem: Sunshine Moore Anger)

I saw the doctor for a check,
I had a lump in my right breast.
Two weeks for the answer.
It wasn’t cancer.
So instead of death, I’m in debt.

— Sunshine Moore Anger

Other Newsroom Favorites 

I was lost in the sadness 
and shock of you leaving, 
Tore my eyes away 
from my Morning Briefing 

How could you leave us, 
Why would you stray? 
When you are loved so dearly by the ACA? 
But I realized too late, 
’Twas not to be, 
My primary care no longer loved me 

– Zac Aulson 

Parental love is beautiful 
And guess what makes it stronger 
A paid parental leave policy 
To stay with baby longer 

– Andrea Ferguson 

The paperwork flirts with my affections, 
A dance of denials, full of rejections. 
My heart yearns for you, my sweet medication, but insurance insists on prior authorization. 

– Sally Nix 

My love for you, darling, is blinding 
Like a clinical trial pre-findings 
But I fear we shall part 
And I’ll lose my heart 
Because of Medicaid unwinding! 

– Kara Gavin 

This article was produced by KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. 

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