(A PDF of this image is available here.)
Dear Rep. Boehner,
Recently, you released a chart purportedly describing the organization of the House Democrats’ health plan. I think Democrats, Republicans, and independents agree that the problem is very complicated, no matter how you visualize it.
By releasing your chart, instead of meaningfully educating the public, you willfully obfuscated an already complicated proposal. There is no simple proposal to solve this problem. You instead chose to shout "12! 16! 37! 9! 24!" while we were trying to count something.
So, to try and do my duty both to the country and to information design (a profession and skill you have loudly shat upon), I have taken it upon myself to untangle your delightful chart. A few notes:
– I have removed the label referring to "federal website guidelines" as those are not a specific requirement of the Health and Human Services department. They are part of the U.S. Code. I should know: I have to follow them.
– I have relabeled the "Veterans Administration" to the "Department of Veterans’ Affairs." The name change took effect in 1989.
– In the one change I made specifically for clarity, I omitted the line connecting the IRS and Health and Human Services department labeled "Individual Tax Return Information."
In the future, please remember that you have a duty to inform the public, and not willfully confuse your constituents.
Sincerely,
Robert Palmer
Resident,
California 53rd District
Version History:
July 21: Original version.
July 22: Added missing link from Surgeon General to Clinical Preventive Services Task Force, noticed by @Fan on freakangels.com (Thanks!)
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Even Boehner’s chart is simpler than my current health care plan.
And a beautiful way to illustrate the entirety of a complicated system.
@mcritz yes, interesting how much effort is going into the message that "a bureaucrat will be placed between you and your doctor."
Last time I checked, I already had an insurance company bureaucrat between me and my doctor anyway. The conversation gets couched in the government denying people care… insurance companies deny care all the time for similar or more callous reasons than those quoted in the right’s current messages.
Thanks Robert for responding to Boehmer’s obfuscation chart with such visual impact.
This is impressive, indeed
awesome and amazing. thank you
Frankly, I have no idea how you were able to decipher Boehner’s shitty flowchart in order to make this graphic.
You are doing the Lord’s work, Robert.
Love it! Of course, our current system is already ridiculously complicated and this bill doesn’t change that much. Here’s a graphical illustration of the current system by Jonathan Cohn, contrasted with Boehner’s chart:
crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/new-health-care-flow-char…
Thank you so much for this.
Ah, yes. Much better.
The frustration with both charts is that neither provide a legend/key for the meanings of different colors represented, what the size of each object represents (number of people, budget size, or arbitrary); why do some circles have no lines connecting and some do?
I would appreciate a legend/key .
-nbl-
You totally rock. I am forever in your debt. I hope you become very rich designing, because you obviously have the ability to see the clear pathways.
@BeeKeepR: While I can’t speak to Rep. Boehner’s diagram, I can speak to mine. At the top of the chart, there are four groups of people (Consumers, Employers, Health Care Providers, and the States) each with their own color. They’re divided by the Health Insurance Exchange (in orange).
Organizations and agencies associated with the Health and Human Services Department are in cyan; other federal departments are in gray. The President and Congress are purple. The Surgeon General is all there by him/herself in red.
The sizes of the circles are largely arbitrary. The HHS circle has to be larger to accommodate all the agencies connected to it. Since the original diagram didn’t appear to have any data associated with budget numbers or size (or anything, for that matter), I chose circle sizes mostly based on aesthetics. Open circles are meant to show inputs to a department or process.
Circles with connecting lines typically are showing a connection between agencies or departments; those with no connecting line are part of the same agency or department.
Thanks for the kind words from everyone. All I can say is that I hope it means we won’t see another chart like Rep. Boehner’s again.
Amazing!!!! In his defense, Boehner probably drafted his chart while he was waiting for his mystic tan at the mall. That will negatively effect your clarity and brevity when drafting charts.
One problem though: the connection lines are very, very thin. And in ridiculously light tones. I can’t even see them easily at 100% in the PDF.
Your chart is simpler than the republican one, even without this kind of cheating, so it would be cool if it were less "designy" and more "charty" as in "showing connections". Because in this form, it’s also not very informative. (But with 60sec of work it will be awesome ;D)
One of the rare occasions when I was proud of my profession. Thank you.
You know what would really great, what with this being the web and all is if someone took the illustrator file and turned it into a flash app where when you mouse over a node it zooms in and replaces the title with detailed text, explaining what each of these departments do.
hey you know what I just thought of that would REALLY stick it to boener would be to create an infographic that shows where his major corporate contributions have come from (arrows going in) then show the bills he has voted on in their interests (arrows going out). Suck on that, boner.
Your message would carry more weight if you remove the snarky tone and holier-than-thou attitude, which is stereotypical and expected from people within our craft. We designers can have more impact if we are constructive.
Why not do a chart of the current health care system?
IT IS REALLY NEEDED FOR THE DEBATES.and I AM TOTALLY SERIOUS.
Since there are hundreds of different insurers there would need to be some way to represent hundreds of different charts and organizations and their bureaucratics taped together. the language on each of the different charts would ideally be different denoting the different coding and reference language each insurer uses.
Don’t forget a huge part of chart just for the doctor’s staffers with all the different billing lines coming in from the insurance company charts.
You would need locks between the doctors and patients with the line from the insurers holding the key.
Also a whole crowd of doctors and equipment should be behind prison fences with the gate labeled "doctors and treatments unapproved by insurers"
You should have a long line of children and people marching completly around 50% of the outside of the chart marching straight to the graveyard at the bottom of the cliff labeled "uninsured".
And don’t forget the big cliff to illustrate all those with and without health insurance denied crucial car when they need it who die under the current lack of health care in America as they are ejected for preexisitng conditions or rising premiums or lost jobs.
You would need ejection seats between doctors and patients to illustrate the practice of "after diagnosis rejection" from the system for suddenly discovered preexisting condition exclusions.
And remember to cut 30% big black hole out of the chart area just for profits.
You should also place a large monkey on top of the chart with the words "unfunded medical care lawsuit personal damage awards" becuase having no national healthcare means every injury lawsuit has massive increased damages awarded to take care of the injured people for the rest of their lives. On top of that monkey’s back should be another monkey with the words "Increased business and personal insurance liability premiums".
oh. it should also include pictures of cars and products or factories with giant monkeys’ on their backs labeled "empoloyer health care costs" right next to cars and building with Japanese/european and chinese flags that are sleeker and devoid of monkeys (which fly overhead as "modern national health care plans)
I freely give these ideas to any good graphic designer including you Robert who will make it and send it and make it available to member of the house and senate for display on the congressional floor during debates. (I would appreciate a concept co-credit though on the bottom.)
IT REALLY NEEDS ILLUSTRATING.
@geopass2001: There is one, while perhaps not as cartoony as you suggest: blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/07/15/…
@Gino: I disagree. John Boehner’s diagram made me angry, damn it. Using "constructive" language (which, from your context, appears to mean "polite and unassuming") doesn’t communicate the intensity of thought that this issue deserves. People I love are — today, right now — being royally screwed by the current healthcare system. Writing a plaintive, milquetoast message to Rep. Boehner doesn’t reflect well on me, our industry, and our country: all of which take pride in passionate and thoughtful debate.
hear hear!
Impressive work!!
Thank you, Robert Palmer. Really, thank you.
This is a wonderful counterpoint to the republican propaganda chart, and a beautiful infographic in its own right.
I agree wholeheartedly with your response to Gino, in that the flowchart distributed as propaganda is rage worthy, and that being polite and civil isn’t the right way to deal with people who are so obviously trying to deceive the very people they serve. You showed those f*kers right though.
A couple points of suggestion, aside from the already stated and addressed need of a key, if you are to make revisions to the chart:
1. Consider making the Health and Human Services Department circle a bit smaller, and connecting it with radial lines instead. As is it gives the impression (because of its size) of a humongous and high budget government department, dwarfing all those other departments. (Including the Department of Defense!)
This is often used as one of the strongest arguments against this plan, so people would be quick to make that assumption. You may even find that aspect of your chart used as a propaganda weapon against your ideals. "Even the plan’s supporters agree that this will be a cumbersome and costly addition. Look at this chart they put together!"
That revision might also give the Health and Human Services Department a kind of Sunshine/Flower look to make it seem even friendlier.
2. Make it more clear (Perhaps in the title space) that this is merely a reorganization or reinterpretation of the Boehner chart. Given how obfuscated and confusing the source material is, it could be very difficult for someone not trained in design or infographics to make the connection that they are one and the same. Your disclaimer-style indicator at the bottom isn’t visible unless the person decides the chart is worthwhile, zooms in to read it and scrolls all the way down. This very fact is what makes it such a compelling and valuable work, so it needs to be above the fold.
And again, awesome work.
@eenlikebean: I really appreciate your thoughtful comments. I actually started with a version that had all the "department" circles the same size, but with all the lines, I reached a point visually where I said "this is no better": If it’s one big ball, or lots of small balls connected to a central ball, you still have one big giant point of focus in the middle of the chart. I wish I’d kept that version, because I could show you that it actually looks way more sinister in a spidery Death Star kind of way than a sunflower. It seemed to me that eliminating the lines simplifies the connections, at the expense of making HHS seem huge.
But, to that point: HHS _will_ be huge with this plan. You’re right in terms of scale to Defense (for example), and this chart does a great job of illustrating the relationship among the departments based on their budget. I agree, it would be fascinating to combine the two charts (and size each circle to scale by budget), but since the plan hasn’t been approved or budgeted (or really _anything_), that chart can’t be made yet. And I’ll admit — reading through thousands of pages of documents doesn’t exactly thrill me or inspire me to get working. 😉
To point 2, I guess I figured that having it on Flickr would serve that purpose, and presenting the image in the context of this page would help to that end. I guess I just wanted to be as pure as I could about it, and translate the image with as few alterations as possible, including to the title or subtitle, or what-have-you.
Thanks again for your thoughtful comments. And continued thanks to all those who have seen and commented here. Let’s hope health care reform keeps going. At this point, even disallowing denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions would be a win.
Cheers!
Good show sir. Today’s internet win is yours.
Thank you so much. I’ve hated that shitty propaganda since the first day I saw it. As someone else said, I am proud to consider myself a graphic designer.
This is brilliant, love the accompanying letter as well. Made me smile.
Insofar as the colors mean something, it would be nice if there were a key so that this level of meaning could be communicated.
This is just one item that keeps your chart – while obviously more visually pleasing than Boehner’s idiotic one – from being a true, useful information graphic.
@begsini: For what it’s worth, I wrote one in text here. Since the originial diagram didn’t include a key, and I wanted to stay as true to the original as possible, I didn’t include a key either. It’s something I probably should have done, I agree.
This is a rare instance where the original is still better in conveying the absurdity of having congress craft our health care system. While this version is all easter bunny and bubbly it’s harder to read do to poor font to background contrast, large white spaces, and hairline links. One thing I agree is the size comparison between "Health and Human Services
Department" and the "Consumer". This makes it obviouse who the "big" winner is.
I don’t care how much "Mr Bubble" you put on this turd of a plan, it still stinks!
@dawson85: RE Font to background contrast: The font is black, the background is white. Can’t really get much more contrasty than that.
Never mind that the typeface also doesn’t have extreme thick-to-thin stroke contrast…
And at the original size, the linking lines aren’t too light at all.
The light colours though, almost Easterish in that colours associated with Easter tend to be lighter, almost pastels. So…a very minor point conceded in a round-about way to Mr. Dawson85, sort of, but not really.
🙂
Someone made a GIANT version of the original (behind the "Obama bring back Arrested Development" sign)
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/granitepics/3812645821/]
@krstnb Now THAT is a health care reform I can get behind. I will feel much better once Arrested Development is back on the air. 🙂
thanks.
So, is it just angry Democrats who can’t discuss political issues without using filthy language? If this is the only resource I have that I can share with my kids then I guess I’m stuck with the Republican version.
Don’t injure your arm patting yourself on your back!
Your graphic design expertise doesn’t make you qualified to create a "simplified" description of a totally spaghetti-like PROCESS such as theDemocrat’s proposed health care system. Your diagram is proof of that.
I vote for Boehner’s diagram as the better – and more accurate – of the two to portray the unintelligible complexity of a typical government-run program. Boehner also didn’t boast arrogance as you did nor has he "shat upon" your mis-representation of a PROCESS (I’m doing that for him here).
You need a few more years before you learn REAL graphic representation of complex processes. How’s your arm feel?
@epuchalski: I use filthy language because I’m angry. If language offends you, you should consider not using it.
@HB Jock: The point was not to simplify the process. I didn’t simplify the process, nor did I ever claim to. I simplified another chart. That’s all I did. I’m representing the same process Boehner did. Feel free to heckle the drawing, that’s fine. Point out flaws. Make it better: that’s what a CC license is for. But heckling me for drawing it (on my Flickr page, no less) just because you don’t agree with what it represents? Please. I don’t walk into your office and slap the dick out of your mouth while you work.
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called what the fuck makes you so special?, and we’d love to have this added to the group!
the work is wonderful.
your recent replies offered to ‘criticism’ are effective and wholly deserved.
it seems to me the american ‘healthcare system’ is nominally oxymoronic. it is run for profit, not for the benefit of the patient.
‘health’ [sic] insurance companies employing doctors to wittingly ‘refuse’ care!
first tenet of the hippocratic anybody.
the|G|™
text based – set
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called A Quiet Revolt, and we’d love to have this added to the group!
I think you left out a big fat arrow indicating the transfer of money from the consumers’ pockets to the federal government. You also forgot a bunch of little arrows showing that cash farmed out among various special interests, including Big Pharma and Big Insurance.
Robert Palmer, Now that the health bill has passed–your diagram (which you did with some cool visualization tool) is too high level and simplistic. I am a health analyst and based on the hundred or so programs that are now being implemented in the Agencies to carry out the bill, it looks alot more like the diagram you criticized. If you want to prove me wrong, use your cool tool and put all the text of all the Federal notices that are being generated by ARRA and ACA through it and generate a new version.