Speech to Persuade: Universal Health Care

This is a reproduction of a speech I had to develop and give for my Intro to Communications class last night. In it, I express my concern for the current problems with health care in the United States and advocate Obama's health care plan as a solution.

I'll openly admit that there are probably places in it where I could have articulated myself more accurately, but I'm confident most people will look past the small stuff. I reckon I didn't do too badly for working five hours straight in a cafe right before I had to give the speech!

I hope I got an A on it!

Below are references:
1. "45 million Americans today do not have health insurance" DeNavas-Walt, Carmen. Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica C. Smith. United States. Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007. Washington D.C.: GPO, 2008., p. 19. http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf
2. "In 2007, 11 percent of children did not have health insurance" ibid, p.20
3. "Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States..." Insuring America's Health: Principles and Recommendations, Institute of Medicine, January 2004. http://www.iom.edu/?id=19175
4. [World Health Organization rankings on "Overall Health System Performance"] United Nations. World Health Organization.The World Health Report 2000. Geneva: Office of Publications, 2000. http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/
5. "U.S. patients reported relatively longer waiting times for doctor appointments when they were sick..." 2005 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Sicker Adults, Commonwealth Fund. http://www.commonwealthfund.org/snapshotscharts/snapshotscharts_show.htm?doc_...
6. [World Health Organization rankings on US high infant mortality and low life expectancy] World Health Organization Press Release, WHO, 2000. http://www.who.int/inf-pr-2000/en/pr2000-life.html
7. "More than eight in ten of the uninsured are in working families - about 70% are from families with one or more full-time workers..." Kaiser Family Foundation, The Uninsured: A Primer (2006), http://kff.org/uninsured/upload/7451-021.pdf, p. 4
8. "President-elect Obama's health care plan" Plan For a Healthy America, Obama for America, 2008. http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Brandon Key
• Brandon
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• Obama
• Health
• Care
• Universal Health Care
• President-elect
• WHO
• Kaiser
• America
• Flag
• Speech
• Speech to Persuade
• Grassroots
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• United States

[coolbreezed]

You need more analysis on who are the uninsured and why they do not possess heath insurance. Just because someone has a job does not mean that they do not choose not to buy insurance and/or qualify for medicaid or some other program and choose not to partake. Also you must examine how many of the uninsured are immigrants who are here illegally.

As for your class warfare argument on forcing the successful to pay for the unsuccessful, I think that we should ALL share the burden or not at all.

[brandonhkey]

@coolbreezed Good feedback. If I ever do an updated speech/blog/paper, I'll definitely try to be more comprehensive. I know a lot of people my age who don't pay for health insurance because they think it's unnecessary, which makes sense if you can trick yourself into thinking you're invincible. As for the "successful vs. unsuccessful" argument, I think most Americans, including me, believe there should be some kind of minimum safety net for everybody. Where to draw the line is difficult.

[ioNiCVido]

Thank you. I have been having so much trouble getting my persuasive speech together. This has helped alot. Thank you

[brandonhkey]

I'm glad it helped you out @ioNiCVido ! I think I used note cards to hit the main points. Wow, I haven't seen this video in a long time. In retrospect, my speech wasn't so much about universal health care as it was about supporting some kind of health care reform. The current law is OK for now, but could certainly use more revision in the future. P.S. I got an A :)

[brandonhkey]

oh, and sorry for the bad audio, I'll fix that if I give another speech

[markfuller042]

Nice reading.. The main reason for this is because the health care insurances corporation throw WAY too much money at politicians.

[kevinkards1]

@UncommonThinker seig hail mine furher let the uninsured die it is cheaper than building camps your country is sick

[UncommonThinker]

@kevinkards1 That was a ranking of socialist health care. Not quality. We got top scores for speed, quality, survival rates and innovation. We lost points for not being socialists in the broader study. Now that France is broke due to socialism their entire health care industry is paralyzed. I wonder how that would affect their ranking. LOL!

[UncommonThinker]

@kevinkards1 WHO ranks the united states with columbia. That was a ranking of socialism, not quality you idiot. In the same ranking we were ranked highest in speed, quality and innovation.  How is frances health system doing now that the country is being paralyzed by protests? Gas shortages, arson, strikes=socialism.

[kevinkards1]

@UncommonThinker W.H.O ranks the usa 37th and the uk 18th and 18000 poeple die in the land of the rich each year and why because they cannot see a doctor you call that fair or just i call it murder

[UncommonThinker]

Which part?