Shen1
Tong Shen
Prof. Roberson
English 1A
13 October 2014
The Guardian of Life
When I read the article “The Moral Hazard Myth” for the first time, I wondered what the
implication of the title is. Then after I finished reading it, I was astonished that the author did such
a good job explaining and interpreting how medical insurance problem associated to “Moral
Hazard Myth.” The author, Malcolm Gladwell, is particularly specialize in this kind of issues. As a
canadian journalist born in 1963, his ideology is always sharp and strait to the point, he explains
his idea in a unique way to lead the readers understand what his emphasis is. Gladwell’s books and
articles often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences and make
frequent and extended use of academic work, particularly in the areas of sociology, psychology,
and social psychology. He has been a staff writer for “The New Yorker” since 1996, and his five
books are all best sellers. An outstanding writer can change doleful things into more colorful and
more attractive, and definitely he is that kind of writer by reading “The Moral Hazard Myth”. He
explains that policy is driven by more than politics. It is equally driven by ideas, and in the past few
decades a particular idea has taken hold among prominent American economists which has also
been a powerful impediment to the expansion of health insurance.
The first thing a developed country should do is to protect its people, to guard
them from illness, and make them feel safe. However, when the writer wrote this article in 1996,
the health care system was not complete enough. His goals in are to push for universal medical
insurance where coverage is given equally to all population, to criticize the idea that you pay more
to use more, and the sick have to pay the most. Gladwell’s opinion is that everyone should be
Shen2
insured, and it is not fair that somebody has it yet the others don’t. Everybody should be treated and
took care of when they are sick, no matter they’re rich or poor. There are no difference between
animas, and there also shouldn’t be situation like “I can deal with the pain”(Gladwell, 240).
At the beginning of this article, Gladwell used a very common example: dental issues.
Tooth decay seems not to be a very serious problem, but if we don’t take care of it, it gets worse
and worse. Probably everybody has it in real life, so it is sensitive to pretty much everyone. Here
he used emotional appeals to resonate people to let them feel empathy, and lead the audiences
considering themselves. “Emotional appeals can use sources such as interviews and individual
stories to paint a more legitimate and moving picture of reality or illuminate the truth(Using).” To
seize more sympathetic response, he used another example of a factory worker from northern
Idaho called Steve, who broke his hand when he was younger. His hand looks like a bone sticks out
the side, because he didn’t have insurance. The doctor wanted to operate on it, but the only thing he
can do was wrapping it for him with an Ace bandage. This has influenced his whole life just due to
he didn’t have a medical insurance. We can’t say that he is not pitiful. Absolutely everyone has a
chance to get sick, probably very seriously sick such as cancers, but not every can afford it. Once
they get cancer without insurance, the only thing they can do is owe the hospital money. Just like
Gladwell mentioned: “Because the uninsured are sicker than the rest of us, they can’t get better
jobs, and because they can’t get better jobs they can’t afford health insurance, and because they
can’t afford health insurance they get even sicker(240)”. There is overwhelming evidence that
people with no, or inadequate, health coverage are sicker, that this illness translates into poor
physical appearance and low self-esteem, therefore these people have great difficulty getting
decent-paying jobs and hence don’t qualify for health insurance.This is a vicious cycle, and he
successfully used this example to catch audiences’ sympathy.
“Emotional appeal originally referred to the elements of a speech that appealed to any of an
Shen3
audience’s sensibilities. Today, many people may discuss the qualities of a text to refer to how well
an author appeals to an audience’s emotions(Aristotle’s)”. He smoothly remind me to my dad’s
situation by noticing Steve’s example he used. Fortunately, he got his heart surgery without any
cost. His medicine spent some, but that’s affordable. My grandma, however, had the same disease
with my dad. They all needed to put a frame into their heart vessel to support it, cause their heart
vessels almost blocked. The only difference is that my grandma’s surgery cost 30,000 dollars
without medical insurance. Isn’t that sounds horrible? 30,000 dollars doesn’t seems affordable for
poor people, and when illness happens, the only thing they can do is owe the hospital’s money.
They maybe don’t want to do that at the first place, but there is no way out for them. None of them
could happen if medical insurance is completely spread.
People should have equally right no matter they are rich or poor. Gladwell wrote so: “Moral
hazard is overblown. You always hear that the demand for health care is unlimited. This is just not
true. People who are very well insured, who are very rich, do you see them check into the hospital
because it’s free? Do people really like to go to the doctor? Do they check into the hospital instead
of playing golf”(242)? Nobody would rather be sick even though cause the hospital is free. The
only thing they want is when they get sick and old, some situation they can’t control like
natural disasters, when their children have tooth decay, when they become disabled
because of accidents, the money they paid every month could bring their safety and protection.
However, this willing that everybody can get medical insurance seems so hard to achieve so
far. Gladwell used many credible sources and hard datas to prove that how hard it is to widespread
medical insurance. Unlike emotional appeals, datas are more logical that referred to the actual
content of a speech and how it was organized, and how strong the logic or reasoning of the text is.
It is more closely refers to the structure and content of the text itself.(Aristotle’s). Gladwell did the
research that The data shows we still leave forty-five million people without any insurance. This
Shen4
data is more intuitive and cruel that directly revealed the reality of the amount of uncovered people.
Even though americans are so devoted to their health-care system, there are still a whole lot people
without insurance.
The lack of health care is fundamentally a moral issue. Health care shouldn’t be
as a privilege, only available to those who can afford it. Gladwell wrote: “a third of the uninsured,
after all, have incomes below the federal poverty line. In the section on the uninsured in the
President’s report, the word “poverty” is never used. In the Administration’s view, people are
offered insurance but “decline the coverage” as a matter of choice(244)”. So many people seems
like they have choices, but if they choose to pay for medical insurance, they need to stop buying
food or paying the rent. They already spend billions on the medical insurance, but obviously it
didn’t help those who really need it. He used an efficient way to analyze datas in order to support
his thesis, and make it more reasonable. It gives the audiences an impressive feeling by telling the
amount of uninsured people directly.
To explain his opinion further, Gladwell did a research that americans spend $5,267 per
capita on health care every year, almost two and half times the industrialized world’s median of
$2,193; the extra spending comes to hundreds of billions of dollars a year(241). According to this
data, he wondered that how come americans already spend so much money on health care system,
the system still hasn’t become perfect yet. It’s miserable that they didn’t spend the money on the
right position. Fortunately, many Americans are awakening to this reality and are outraged.
Make no mistake, what is happening in health care reform is not at all different from what
is happening in the reform of any other sector of our society. The fact is that despite our hopes and
great expectations, to have a perfect health care system remains far more a dream rather than
reality.
Shen 5
Works Cited
Gladwell, Malcolm. “The Moral Hazard Myth” The presence of others
Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St.Martin’s,
2008, 74-80. Print
Sproat, Ethan Driscoll, Dana Lynn Brizee, Allen. “Aristotle’s Rhetorical Situation” Perdue Owl.
Perdue Owl, n.d. web. 27 April. 2014
Weida, Stacy, Stolley, Karl “Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion” Perdue Owl.
Perdue Owl, n.d. web. 11 Mar 2013
Attachment
Essay #3 English 1A
Rhetorical Analysis
Analyze the RHETORICAL techniques from one of these authors’ articles (Clayton, Whithead, Hymowitz, Gladwell, Gratzer, or Yoo) to make ONE FOCUSED argument. Your argument (thesis) should be general (a good, strong adjective) but specific as to what you are proving.
Choose one of these articles AND find one “outside” credible source as well as Purdue Owl (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/04/) to cite and use as evidence in your essay. (Cite Purdue Owl correctly!)
Your essay needs to be BALANCED.
*Ethos in introduction, maybe another paragraph or mention throughout.
*Pathos then Logos or v.s.
OR
*Pathos and Logos evidence cited and analyzed together
Lots of choices!
BUT you NEED to analyze all three—ethos, logos, pathos—equally. Every body paragraph should link back to the central argument/thesis. Cite evidence (particular diction, phrases, etc.) and at least half of each body paragraph should support the thesis by analyzing the author’s words closely through the lenses of pathos—emotional appeal—and/or logos—logical appeal.
Other specifics:
1) About 4 – 5 pages (1,000 – 1,250 words) double spaced.
2) Page 5 or 6 is the Works Cited. You should list three sources minimum (article, “outside” source and Purdue Owl).
3) Present essay in proper MLA format.
4) Have catchy Title
5) Have a “Hook.”
6) Have a solid “Link” (sentence/s that connect/s hook to the context).
7) Summary of the article and ethos analysis (Context: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?).
8) Thesis, made up of FACT and Opinion. Facts (something from the article) and Opinion (what specifically are you arguing?)
9) Stay away from logical fallacies.
10) Limited use of the “I” is fine, but only use when necessary.
11) Avoid “you”; (maybe for the “hook,” otherwise too colloquial and can put reader on the defensive). Preferably not at all.
12) Use clear Topic Sentences for body paragraphs.
13) Cite evidence from articles to support your argument. Use quotes to support not for padding.
14) End with a strong conclusion that wraps up but is not repetitive. Stay away from “In conclusion” (very elementary).
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
OVER
RATING
YEARS
