What’s the deal with Healthcare in the United States of America
The debate over how America has been dealing with healthcare for the last decade has been passionate,and there are many viewpoints on how healthcare should be done. There are thousands of articles and tons of different ideas of how we as Americans can make it better. This makes the topic controversial and even causes hostility when people discuss it at some points. However, public vs. private health care debates have valid points on both sides, whether it be not wanting higher taxes on your income, or not having to pay out of pocket for your healthcare, less competition within the market, or guaranteed healthcare. The debate won’t go away until something is done. Every article has a point to get across about what America should do about healthcare, but how well do they get that point across?
With this question in mind, the first thing I will start off with is an analysis of an article I found that is against universal healthcare.
“Universal Health Care is a Bad Thing”- Kenneth Wright MD.
journals.lww.com/em-news/fulltext/2008/07000/universal_health_care_is_a_bad_thing.8.aspx.
Wright opens up his article by introducing himself and his credentials and where he had his training for medicine training. He goes on and describes the Canadian healthcare system as a disaster and putting out the fact that a lot of physicians left to go to the US for jobs because of the money involved. Moving further down he goes on to talk about young people and why they necessarily don’t need insurance. “The 47 million so-called uninsured people in the U.S. include a large number of young healthy folks who, understandably, choose to spend their money on things other than health insurance. Because we have hospitals that turn a blind eye to theft of service, they get away with paying little or nothing for emergency care when they finally do become sick or injured. If someone walked out of a store with a TV set and didn’t pay for it, he would end up in jail.” He connects free healthcare to robbing a store of a TV to create the idea that having free healthcare is in a way robbery, he does this to make the reader question the ethical reasons behind it and thus makes the reader feel cheated. He then bring up a fictional man who spends his money on other things rather than health insurance “The truly needy should continue to be cared for at society’s expense, but a man with $2000 worth of tattoos and piercings on his body who smokes $3000 worth of tobacco and drinks $1000 worth of alcohol yearly will have a very hard time convincing me that someone else should pay for his health care. He has chosen to spend $4000 a year on tobacco and alcohol rather than on health care.” Bringing this into the argument creates an unjust feeling with the reader. Seeing this they end up feeling they are being treated unfairly because they pay their fair share for insurance and for someone who could stop spending money on alcohol and tobacco and pay for their own insurance they should.
“Point Turning Point: the Case for Universal Health Care” U.S News
health.usnews.com/health-care/for-better/articles/the-case-for-universal-health-care.
This is an article Done by U.S News presented an article that showed all the benefits America would receive if we moved to a universal healthcare system. This provides a whole array of details that anyone should be interested in such as covering other countries and the effects it could have on America. One example from this article “Of all these countries, the U.S. has the highest portion of private insurance. In terms of dollars spent, the average per capita health care spending of OECD countries is $3,558, while in the U.S. it’s $10,207 – nearly three times as costly.” This shows how the article uses logic to persuade the reader, using this statistic shows the average reader that it will in most ways benefit most people in America and by creating a cheaper healthcare system. Switching it up they address the problem with the businesses involved in the healthcare industry “The main reason U.S. health care costs are so high is because we don’t have universal health care. Unlike other first world countries, the health care system in the U.S. is, to a great extent, run through a group of businesses. Pharmaceutical companies are businesses. Insurance companies are businesses. Hospital conglomerates are businesses. Even doctors’ offices are businesses.” They make a logical statement to state that since they are businesses they are looking for a profit, since it’s not a universal healthcare system they compete and mark up the price for everything. Introducing this the audience can see that there not working for you but for profit instead.
Medicare for All: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Another great use of rhetoric John Oliver uses his platform by talking down to the opposing arguments by making jokes of their claims.. He then begins to backup his argument by supplying the viewers with statistics and facts about. For example a paraphrase from his video “(A clip from Fox News) I’ve been to England national healthcare is a disaster, When rich and famous people get sick they come to America because our healthcare system is the best. John replies: You have a great point, America has one of the best systems for rich and famous people, but most people born in America are born with a condition called “Not being Beyonce”” This is a great example of John Oliver using someone’s claim and flipping it so he can diminish their statement by using comedy and making his rebuttal to do so. He closes off his argument for medicare for all by connecting all of the topics and stories he brought in for the segment “When Americans get sick they can find themselves comparison shopping with a burst appendix, flipping a coin between life saving medication, and praying they can come up with a catchy enough hashtag to cover their care.” This ended off his argument on a heartwarming point to get the viewer to sympathise with him appealing to pathos.
“Affordable Care Act Returns to the Supreme Court in the Shadow of the Pandemic,” Washington Post.
Goldstein uses pathos and ethos very well to display an argument towards why healthcare is needed. She doesn’t go into unified healthcare but she goes over the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Which is the closest thing America has to it. She uses people affected by the healthcare system to help portray the problem with the cost of health care. One example from her article “Nearly 11 million would lose coverage through marketplaces created under the ACA to sell private health plans, usually with federal subsidies, to people who cannot get affordable benefits through a job. And about 12 million, insured because of Medicaid expansions in all but a dozen states, could find that coverage disappear.” Bringing this into the article introduces that cutting the healthcare plan (ACA) would hurt millions. People tend to want the best for others so this puts the reader in a position where they have to consider other people’s well being connecting to pathos. She then moves on to a personal story from a woman named Cameron “After days in bed — her heart beating wildly, her mind foggy, sometimes feeling on the edge of passing out — she went to Stanford’s emergency room. Her fever was just below 100, the threshold for being admitted. For the visit of less than four hours, the bill for tests and the doctors she saw was $14,706 — all but $1,370 paid by her Blue Shield of California insurance.” connecting to the reader it makes them question why would it cost so much for a simple procedure that only lasted four hours. This shows that the unjust costs for medical in America are outrageous and possibly putting people in financial trouble. This was a strategic use of rhetoric by Goldstein because it used pathos and logos thus creating the reader to think deeper about the problems within.
With these articles you can see that universal health care isn’t perfect but it does benefit a majority of the people. It has benefits such as providing healthcare for all, lowering cost for some, and decreasing drug prices. The only worries are the limited choices on where you get your healthcare to one. And paying extra in taxes for people you don’t know. The goal is to provide a safe way for people to live, the good outweighs the bad with the articles presented
Cosner Rhetoric 