The difficulties of health insurance

In an editorial article from Austin American Statesman published on July 14, 2012 titled “For better health, pay Perry no mind,” an anonymous author provides his thoughts on Governor Rick Perry’s decision not to expand Medicaid in Texas. Although the author’s name is not provided, the website states that the person who wrote the article is part of the Editorial Board from American Statesman. This illustrates that the author is a respected member of American Statesman because he wrote not just a pure news article with facts, but a report with his opinions in order to persuade his audience.

Although I imagine the article is aimed at all Texans to some extent, I believe the author’s main audience is intended to be Republicans who support Perry’s decision on Medicaid. The author says that “more than 6 million Texans lack health insurance...[which] represents about 25 of the state’s population, giving Texas a dubious No. 1 ranking: the highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation.” This exemplifies the author is disturbed by how many Texans are uninsured and therefore believes Perry should have agreed to the Medicaid program in order improve our health insurance. Unfortunately for the author, Perry rejected the proposed Medicaid program and as a result, the author is trying to persuade Republicans to change their viewpoint on Perry and agree with Obama’s Medicaid program.

Even though this article was an interesting read, I do not think the author went into enough detailed information about why Perry rejected the proposed health care policy. With my parents working in the business field, I tend to hear a good amount about politics and have therefore heard that Perry rejected the Medicaid program because the state government, with its current level of income from taxes, cannot handle the monetary burden that would have been caused by the adoption of this program. If I had not known some of the reasons why Perry rejected the program, I may have been persuaded by the author and wanted to agree with him in that Texas should have indeed accepted the health insurance plan. Nonetheless, being brought up in a very Republican family, I cannot help but retain my conservative views.