The Need of Establishing Health Care Insurance

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to believe the United States should have a health care insurance program, which eliminates private health insurance.

Thesis: The United States needs a national health care insurance program because the development of private health care insurance and the lack of a national plan throughout history have to lead to a deficiency in proper health care for many Americans.
 Introduction:
In the United States costs for health care are being shifted to individuals instead of the government. As professor Allen Jedlicka of UNI states, “The United States is one of the only first world countries that does not have a national health care plan.” The United States needs a national health care insurance program because the development of private healthcare insurance has lead to a deficiency in proper health care for many Americans. I would like to first tell you why the lack of a national program is a problem, why it became a problem, and then a simple solution for you to do your part in not making it a problem in the future.

I. The first point in my speech is to inform you why making up 82% of the United States population get their health care from private health insurance is a problem (Raffel 280). There are three main reasons this causes a problem.

a. The first reason this causes a problem is the cost of private health care insurance.

i. As Marshall Raffel states “The costs to the 18% of the 41 million Americans who do not have health care are outrageous” (270).

1. The cost of emergency room assistance can cost anywhere from $170 for non-urgent care to thousands of dollars for patients who are in serious condition (Thompson).

a. These costs may actually turn people away from getting medical attention.

2. If they want to get their own insurance plan, there are a number of companies they can turn to but this is also very expensive.

3. Visual Aid:

a. Here is one of the quotes for an insurance plan.

b. I picked a person that is 26 years old because it gives us an idea of where we will be soon after college.

i. The person is married with one child.

ii. I took the highest quoted figure for premium payments and got this for their coverage.

1. As you can see they don’t cover everything, and even with your premium, you do still have to make up to a certain amount for individual items.

ii. For people with jobs that have a great health insurance plan, the costs are obviously lower, however, the Health Care Financing Administration has reported that the number of people without health insurance has been increasing by 1 million a year and now there are 41 million Americans without health insurance (“HMO Advocacy . Costs Down”).

1. Now, if you are thinking, well why should we have a public health care plan- my job will probably pay for all of my health insurance that is actually not true.

a. Today neither employers nor the government is able to assume the financial burden of the soaring costs.

b. 54% of full-time, year-round workers are uninsured.

c. 15.8% of part-time, year-round employment are uninsured.

d. Only 14.5% of the unemployed are uninsured because of programs such as Medicaid that is supplied for low-income families (Laham 93).

2. Even though these people have insurance which generally covers 80 to 100% of physician charges, the patient still must pay a deductible which could cost anywhere from $100 up past $5000 and still must pay some of the charges associated with their medication.

b. The second reason it is a problem to have private healthcare instead of national health care is that the numbers of people without medical attention are also outrageous.

i. The National Center for Health Statistics indicates that the number of helpless children who do not receive proper health care range from 15% to 20% (“America’s Children”).

ii. The National Center for Health Statistics also indicates that the number of adults from 18-64 who do not receive proper health care range from 18% to 20% (“Working-age Adults”).