The Time Has Come For Healthcare Reform Essay

Despite extensive statistics and research proving what's wrong with healthcare in the States, political leaders cannot get past futile disagreements over what to do to enact change. Many of the decision-makers in this country have no idea of the effect that a broken healthcare system poses on underprivileged Americans. Ridiculous costs, low coverage, and corporate greed are a few reasons why healthcare in the United States is so disastrous. Issues like these cause the standard of living to be increasingly difficult for everyone, especially minorities and people of lower economic status. Many individuals have attempted to create solutions to avoid the financial problems that healthcare causes through the means of speeches and literature. American

Obama wrote his speech, The Time has Come for Healthcare Reform as a call to action for American citizens to realize the state of their healthcare and encourage them to strive for advancing their healthcare. Included in his speech, Obama has many instances of logos to help express some reasoning behind his reform goals. His main concerns with healthcare are the rising costs and the inevitable lack of coverage that results from those high prices. Obama states, “Today, we are spending over $2 trillion a year on health care – almost 50 percent more per person than the next most costly nation. And yet, for all this spending, more of our citizens are uninsured; the quality of our care is often lower; and we aren't any healthier” (Obama, 2009). Obama's use of a statistic provides the audience with a trustworthy piece of information to further benefit his argument. Throughout his speech, Obama’s use of logos highlights the shockingly high prices that Americans have seemingly grown accustomed to. He also demonstrates that as a nation we tend to associate higher prices with higher care, however, despite the prices continuing to rise, the overall care has not changed. Many reports have come to the same conclusion as Obama, such as Sarah Kliff in her piece describing what is wrong with American healthcare. Kliff states, “Most American doctors aren’t paid on whether they deliver that improved

Despite being a powerful leader, Obama demonstrates his acknowledgment of the struggles that are placed upon many less fortunate individuals.“It is unsustainable for Americans like Laura Klitzka, a young mother I met in Wisconsin last week, who has learned that the breast cancer she thought she'd beaten had spread to her bones; who is now being forced to spend time worrying about how to cover the $50,000 in medical debts she has already accumulated” (Obama 2009). Obama highlights one out of the many heartbreaking realities that are the consequence of such high expenses. His use of anecdotes reinforces his idea that every individual in the states faces problems with healthcare, and everyone's story deserves to be heard. This strategy builds trust and a bond between Obama and his audience. Obama also uses pathos in this passage, because as unfortunate as Laura’s situation is, it is ultimately unavoidable and can happen to anybody. He shows how unreasonable Laura’s circumstance is because not only does she have to deal with the threat of dying from her spreading sickness, but she is now also drowning in thousands of dollars of debt. Society should be supporting