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Cyril Thor Johnson Ms. Caruso ENGL 1102 April 2, 20132 April 2013 Memo: I am writing this letter as a concerned student in response to the article Doctors Debate Universal Health Care: Pros and Cons From the Experts. I have decided to respond to your this debate because I feel that there are some key points of your the debate that I feel need to be discussed. These main points include how I believe the quality of healthcare would suffer, as well as the fact that the government offering universal healthcare would be a huge waste of tax payer dollars with a government that is already trillions of dollars in debt. This letter will be used as a means to help voice my opinion and continue this important debate.
Comment [BC2]: Remember, this memo is to me, not to the doctors. Ill need to know how this letter is getting to them (in the mail, through email, or through a public letter in a specific magazine or newspaper). Also, be sure that when there is a word count given, that you elaborate enough to meet it. Comment [BC1]: Change the date format.

"Doctors Debate Universal Health Care: Pros and Cons From the Experts." The Survival Doctor. Hubbard Publishing, Jan. 2008. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. <http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2013/02/14/doctors-debate-universal-health-care-pros-andcons-from-the-experts/>. http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2013/02/14/doctors-debate-universal-health-care-pros-and-consfrom-the-experts/ Dear, Doctors OShea and Whelan, Universal healthcare is an important topic today and I enjoyed reading your debate of the pros and cons of universal health care and whether or not it should come into law. Although I tend to side with Dr. OShea on this topic for multiple reasons including the tendency for private sectors

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to be more efficient than the government, and I believe the quality of healthcare we receive would suffer. However I do think that Dr. Whelan has made some interesting points about the importance of universal healthcare that need to be addressed. I will be addressing your debate and the important points of the topic and hope to further your discussion of this important topic. I will be starting this letter off by addressing Dr. Whelans point of view on universal healthcare. The argument for universal healthcare has brought up many good reasons as to why it would be a good thing for us all; and I agree that universal health care is itself a desirable goal (Doctors Debate Universal Health Care), of course giving healthcare to everybody would be an amazing thing. However, I believe that universal health care would just be a waste of government time and funds. Americans spend $2.8 trillion a year on the health care system, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That includes the cost of unneeded and excessive treatment, of mistakes and errors, unnecessary bureaucracy, missed prevention opportunities and the cost of fraud. Altogether, the institute concluded, the American health care system wastes $765 billion a year. (Toedtman par. 4) The previously quoted article went on to say that this 765 billion dollar waste is higher than that of the whole annual defense budget. (Toedtman par. 4) Through my own experience, I have seen that people who have health insurance overuse it and will go to the doctor just for a simple sniffle. When these people go to the doctor, it is unneeded to visit the doctor just for a sniffle, and the insurance company will havehas to pay money forto the visit to the doctor for the visit. In the case of universal healthcare the insurance company is the government, and the money the government would pay the doctor is tax dollars, and these tax dollars would be wasted on a doctor visit that was not even truly needed in the first place. One point you made Dr. Whelan
Comment [BC4]: What if these smaller issues were symptoms of a larger problem? Comment [BC3]: Are you referring to their article, or to the article you just quoted? Be clear and specific.

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was that you said it is a myth that the quality of health care would suffer. How would the quality of health care not suffer from a sudden surge of people who were previously uninsured now coming to the doctor for visits like the instance I described above? According to A new poll of
838 Massachusetts doctors finds patients are still waiting weeks -- in some cases as long as a month and a half -- for non-urgent appointments with primary care physicians and certain specialists. (Kowalczyk, Par. 1) This dramatic increase in the total number of people coming to

the doctor would cause a huge increase in waiting times to go to the doctor unless you lived in a small town. I believe that with this increased number of patients, doctors would not have the time to properly examine every single patient personally and the rate of medical malpractice and over-medication would rise. Think about it, if you have two weeks and do not feel rushed to write a paper you will have much more time to write a well written and reviewed paper; however, if you have to write five papers in two weeks you are not going to have as much time to fully compose your ideas and review your paper before it has to be submitted. So if you are a doctor it would be the same thing but with patients instead of papers. Longer wait times for medical attention and the rate at which medical malpractice and over-medication occur are surely declines in the quality of healthcare. How can we support a health care plan that will waste our tax dollars and lessen the overall quality of the healthcare we receive today? Universal healthcare needs to be handled carefully and taken seriously. Universal healthcare is something that could be possible but we need to approach it the right way. I think that everybody should be able to be seen by a doctor should they actually have a need to be seen. If you have a serious illness or infection, if you break a bone, if you are dying of a serious sickness you should be able to see a doctor without the fear of being unable to pay the fees. Instead of spending tax dollars so everybody can have the same type of insurance private insurance companies offer; we should offer a system that allows people that have serious illnesses or need to be under the watch
Comment [BC5]: How can you back up your ideas? You have not done this so far, except with the one block quote.

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of a doctor for the duration of their sickness have that taken care of for them. We need to focus on the serious issues before we can focus on everyone having the same health care provided by someone who pays out of pocket for insurance. The two aspects I have chosen to focus on when revising my CAP project are incorporating more research and quotes, and also focusing on better explaining my thoughts and ideas.
Comment [BC6]: Thor, Although the tone you take in this article is a professional tone, and you begin to hint at key pieces of information, I dont see much engagement in this article, and it certainly does not show that you have been working for four months to develop your opinions on this subject. You do speak with an informed tone to the doctors, but you dont give any information to show that you are informed. Also, be sure you are considering every option. Think of arguments that could be made against you, such as what I mentioned in comment 4. How can you pre-emptively combat these ideas? As you work to revise, I would suggest that you more thoroughly develop your points and incorporate research to back up those points. Expand upon your ideas, include others, and show your reader why you disagree with their argument. -Ms. C

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Works Cited "Doctors Debate Universal Health Care: Pros and Cons From the Experts." The Survival Doctor. Hubbard Publishing, Jan. 2008. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. <http://www.thesurvivaldoctor.com/2013/02/14/doctors-debate-universal-health-care-pros-andcons-from-the-experts/>. Toedtman, Jim. "How Much Waste Is There in the Health Care System?" AARP (2012): n. pag. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. <http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-11-2012/health-caresystem-wastes-billions.html>. Kowalczyk, Liz. "Wait for doctors visit as long as 48 days in Mass." boston.com[Boston, MA]. N.p., 9 May 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2011/05/wait_for_doctor.html>.

Comment [BC7]: It is very difficult to use two sources if you want to show that you are an expert in the field.

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More Research: The purpose of this paper will be to discuss the topic of universal healthcare and a debate between two doctors OShea and Whelan. I chose this matter of discussion because I feel like I am pretty knowledgeable of the subject and because I feel that it is important for us to find the correct answer to this debate. However I will still be reading multiple articles on the subject of universal healthcare to be sure I do not leave anything out when writing the letter. My main audience for this paper will be the two doctors that I will be addressing in the letter; however it could also be intended for anybody who is interested in the topic and wants to see different viewpoints on the subject. Hopefully with this paper I will be able to further debate of universal healthcare and we can be one step closer to finding the right answer.

Comment [BC8]: , but be sure you are much more specific and take more time with it. This is very quick.