The Right to Be Healthy (by Scott Chastain)

General Purpose:            To Persuade

Specific Purpose:            To persuade the Communications 101 class to sign a petition advocating NHI

Thesis Statement:            Our country is plagued by an inadequate health care system which leaves millions without care, targets racial groups, distributes tax monies to the wealthy, costs a fortune and only a national health insurance plan will solve the problem.

Attention Step

I.          You watch your sixteen year old son get tackled at his high school football game.  He suffers a small injury, a broken finger.  Only when the doctors figure out that his finger has refused to heal                 because your son has a type of cancer known as clear cell sarcoma do you know how serious the situation is.  Still you don’t worry for after all you’re no welfare mom, you are a registered nurse and your family is fully insured.  At first the medical treatments seem to by beating the cancer, but then a new medical problem arises.  Your HMO.  They begin to delay treatments causing your son’s disease to progress more rapidly.  When it progresses to his lungs the only hope is an experimental bone marrow transplant.  The HMO denies coverage.  In June of 1991, three years after the diagnosis, you bury your son: victim of clear cell sarcoma and his HMO.  This is the story of Marilyn Azevedo and her son Andy.   

II.         I, like millions of Americans, have been both under and uninsured at various times in my life.

A.           I know what it is like to feel helpless when faced with heavy expenses for health reasons.

                B.            I know how hard it is to obtain medical insurance, even when you are employed.

III.        If we have the means to end suffering it follows that we morally ought to end that suffering.

                A.            The United States has the world’s best medical technology and expertise.

                B.            The United States trails the developed world in administering that technology and                        expertise to those who most need it.

Transition:  This country should be leading the world in healthy citizens!

Problem Step

I.            According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 40 million Americans are currently without health insurance.

                A.            Gary Wilensky wrote in the Consultant  that 75% of all these uninsured are either                                                                 employed or dependents of the employed.

                                1.                This problem is not only affecting the unemployed and homeless.

2.                This is a growing problem.  Over the last twenty years we have averaged one million more         uninsured persons each year.

                B.            As Andy’s case demonstrates, even those with insurance are often underinsured.

II.         Lack of insurance can cause serious health problems, and even fatalities.

A.         Insurer David Jones confirms that the uninsured often wait until the symptoms are severe before getting medical aid.

1.                These problems would have probably been treated at an earlier stage. Dr. Jonathan Ross tells us of an uninsured man in his 30s with the easily treatable diagnosis of sleep apnea delaying his treatment until it became so severe that he died of heart failure.               

2.                The New England Journal of Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation both have done studies which show that the uninsured are more prone to early death.

II.         The current system diverts tax dollars to private insurance companies and generates excessive expense which in turn works against helping the sick.           

A.         According to Jones, the uninsured use the more expensive emergency  room as their primary care center.

B.         As we currently allow private profiteers to govern who gets health care, we have a mountain of avoidable expenses and lack of choice for the uninsured and insured alike.  This information comes from the doctor’s themselves, a collaboration known as the Physician’s Working Group (PWG).

1.                Some health economists like Steven Eastaugh estimate admin. spending up to 220 billion dollars a year!  He further states that part of this cost comes from the 800 pages of paperwork for any hospitalized patient.

2.                According to the AMA, our health care costs are nearly double that of any other nation.  Eastaugh reports that we spent an average of $4,511 dollars per person in 2000.

3.                He also says that we give tax subsidies of about 100 billion dollars to insurance executives.

4.                Dr. Sanford Brown was saddened when he learned that one insurance executive was paid enough money in a year to insure 38,000 folks.               

III.           This problem affects all Americans.

A.         The PWG reports that Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians are twice as likely to          receive substandard health care.  This makes our current system inadvertently racist.

B.         Thousands of horror stories like Andy‘s attest to the claim by the PWG that full insurance doesn‘t guarantee adequate health care.

                C.                Health insurance is priced out of the reach of many of us.

                                1.                This affects those who make too much money to qualify for state                                                                                     and federal programs currently, but not enough to afford private                                                                                                      health care costs, mostly the upper lower class and middle class                                                                                       2.                .I asked for a quote from eHealthInsurance.com.  The range in 11                                                                                              different plans for my family of four ran from $133.70 per month                                                                                                to $400.30 per month.

                                3.                The most inexpensive plan had a $4500 deductible and  20% co-                                                                                                    pay.  It did not cover check-ups, x-rays, gynecological services                                                                                                   or mental health needs.

Transition:  As humans we should help the sick despite their skin color or social status, and it is also reasonable to save money rather than donate it to the wealthy.

Solution Step

I.          The best and most affordable method to solving this problem is to make health care accessible to all Americans despite race or social standing.

A.         One common idea is to provide vouchers to the uninsured to be cashed in by HMOs, the same folks  who skimp on health care, and thus vouchers would not provide adequate  coverage.

                B.                Another proposal is to offer a tax subsidy to cover the uninsured.

                                1.                Bush only proposes $2000 per family which is hardly sufficient coverage.

2.                 The PDG estimates that the proposed budget of $13 billion would only cover about 10              percent of the uninsured.

II.         Only a single-payer National Health Insurance (NHI) plan would cover all Americans equally without bias and save the taxpayers money.

III.        This plan solves most of the problems facing the health care crisis.

A.         The PWG claims NHI would reduce the amount we spend on administration costs by as much as $150 billion a year!

B.         It would reduce the amount of paperwork for any admitted patient from 800 papers to a single piece of paper.

C.         It would free up the doctors so they can spend time helping the sick rather than filling out forms.

D.        NHI would divert our tax dollars from the wealthy few to all Americans equally, without           bias of financial or racial status.

IV.        This sort of plan is in use in many other countries and has been proven to be effective.

A.         The rest of the developed world only uses one to three forms when admitting patients.

B.         Canada reduced its administration costs from 25% to only 1% when they switched to a single-payer NHI.

C.         Eastaugh reveals that South Korea now leads the world in equitable health care, and it only took them four months and a four page plan to get all of their citizens coverage. In South Korea they only spent $784 per person in 2000.

V.         The objections to NHI are unsubstantial.

A.         If we institute a national health plan it will give the government power to decide who gets health care.

1.                The current system excludes certain social groups from health care, but NHI would give all Americans equal medical coverage.

2.                NHI puts the power of decision making into the hands of medical professionals.                 

                B.            NHI would limit my choice of doctor.

                                1.                If you don’t have insurance you have no doctors to choose from.

                                2.                If you have private insurance you are limited to the doctors in that plan.

3.                NHI would put every doctor into one plan, making all doctors available to all people.  NHI increases choice, unlike our current system which eliminates or retards choice.

                C.            Tax payers should not be forced to support the uninsured.

1.                Tax payers already pay the higher bill for ER visits for the uninsured.  NHI would save the tax payers money.

2.                Right now your taxes are going to a few select billionaires to make them richer, while many in need of those funds suffer.  Should your taxes be subsidized to the wealthy or someone’s sick mom?

Transition:  It should be obvious to anyone who isn’t blind that NHI helps all Americans equally, saves us a fortune, and distributes our taxes to those in need of medical help rather than a few wealthy people who will have to find a way to scratch out a living with the meager billions they already own.

Visualization Step

I.          Only a savage cruel society doles out cash to the wealthy and turns its back on its sick members.

A.         We turn our backs on the sick in favor of the rich, hence we are a savage cruel society.

                B.            All Americans should feel a deep seated sense of shame and guilt over this                                         embarrassing fact.

II.         The only reasonable way to act is to adopt NHI immediately, and take pride in being Americans rather than acting like a bunch of hypocrites who fund the rich while the forcing the rest to suffer!

III.        How many of our sons and daughters will we lose at the hands of those who profit on sickness and death before we act?

Action Step

I.          I have a petition here I would like you to sign, which I will send to President Bush.  .

II.         It is you and your family you are helping, so please take this important issue seriously.

A.         We fund public education and consider it a necessity.  We don’t consider health care a necessity despite the fact that lack of insurance itself promotes sickness and early death.

B.         This decision affects all of us physically and financially.  It is high time we stop funding         billionaires and start spending it on our health.  Be a hero not a beast.

C.         When all is said and done, our health is a right, not a privilege.  Sign my petition and you can save money and save families!

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Audience Analysis

My audience consists of about 20 members, evenly mixed male and female.  The ages are probably from about 18 to 45 years.  It seems that the younger students make up about half the class, and older non-traditional students make up the rest.

The students are mostly from a conservative religious stance, with a handful which are more liberal in their thinking.  We have a handful of outdoor types, gun fanatics, Native American enthusiasts, and those desiring to be a part of the health care profession.

I have gleaned this from listening to previous speeches and comments during the semester.

I think my largest obstacle is apathy, due to the younger community not being overly concerned with their health, and the older community feeling they are adequately insured.  I intend to target both fallacies and illustrate how NHI will improve all of their lives.  There are several compassionate types (mostly the older females) and I will target their sense of compassion, as well as the religious groups sense of family values.

Two Stylistic Devices (Tropes)

Rhetorical Question:  Should your taxes be subsidized to the wealthy or someone’s sick mom?

Hyperbole:  It should be obvious to anyone who isn’t blind that NHI helps all Americans equally, saves us a fortune, and distributes our taxes to those in need of medical help rather than a few wealthy people who will have to find a way to scratch out a living with the meager billions they already own.

Two Enthymemes

Major Premise:                It is immoral to cause needless suffering.

Minor Premise:  If we don’t institute NHI we will cause needless suffering.

Conclusion:                We must institute NHI.

Major Premise:                It is un-American to have a class system.

Minor Premise:  If we don’t institute NHI American health care will remain a cause of a class system.

Conclusion:                We must institute NHI.

Motive Appeals

“The United States should feel a deep seated sense of shame and guilt over this embarrassing fact.”  (revulsion, sympathy, pride)

“NHI increases choice, unlike our modern system which eliminates or retards choice.”  (relief from restraint, autonomy, freedom)

Bibliography

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     World Wide Web on Dec. 2, 2002:

     Http://coveringtheuninsured.org/stories/index.php3?StoryID=29.

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