Kyminis E.

Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu

Memo: Health Insurance Premium

To: From: Date: Beth Howard, Insurance Companies and Doctors Kyminis Vialet March 25, 2013

On August 10, 2009 an article was written for Womens Health Magazine and placed on the Healthcare on NBCNEWS.com. This article discussed why health insurance prices are so high and also five ways that you can individually lower you insurance prices. But the real question isnt what can be individually done but what can be done as a whole. Given the rea sons in the article for high prices, some cannot be individual changed. Health Insurance on a whole needs to be revamped in America. Attached you will find my response article to the article 5 Reasons Health Insurance Costs are so High http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32029403/ns/healthhealth_care/#.UVCASKDrSSp ;written and published in Womens Health Magazine and Healthcare on NBCNEWS.com. I will be addressing the issues of big businesses and their management style, doctors and their training, and health in America in general. Through this article I hope that we are able to realize that there is much more that can be done as a whole. Much more that can benefit the health care system in America. March 20, 2013

Kyminis E. Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu

Beth Howard Women's Health Magazine 33 E. Minor Street Emmaus, PA 18098

Dear Ms. Howard,

On January 20, 2009 President Elect Barack Obama was sworn in to the white house. During his campaign one of President Obamas main platforms was health insurance. He determined that too many Americans were without health insurance and thus maid a goal to make it more affordable. In 2010 President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. We are currently in 2013 and still have one more year until this is in full effect. But what will it really do for America? Will insurance truly become more affordable? How much more Americans will now be able to afford insurance? What causes insurance to be so high initially? In your article you discussed five reasons insurance behind why insurance is so high. But these reasons are beyond our control. Why is it that doctors are afraid to get sued? Were they not trained properly? Why is insurance high for females than males? Your article discusses many issues that deal with the training of healthcare providers and also how insurance companies run their business. This article states that five reasons for rising healthcare cost include: Your doctor is freaked about getting sued, Your insurer pushes more paper than Dunder Mifflin, Youre a female, Your insurer would rather pay to treat a disease than to prevent one, Your doctor is paid for how much he does for you not how well he cares for you. This article also notes five ways to lower your costs: Negotiate with your provider, Consider COBRA carefully, Keep records of your health care expenses, Get you insurer to pay for more coverage, and Find an advocate.

Kyminis E. Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu Although all of these are nice simple tricks for lowering insurance rates; this still will not solve the problem. Insurance needs to be completely revamped. Why should females be forced to higher insurance rates simply because they are females? Why do doctors have such a feared of being sued? And arent doctors supposed to care more about the overall well being of their patients rather than how much money they can make off of someone? The reasons giving for high insurance rates all goes back to proving that greed is money and money is power. Doctors are so concerned with how much money they would be able to make if they continuously make you visit them. Insurance companies are concerned with just running their big business rather than taking care of their clientele. If Americans first learn to value their health and take care of their bodies we will first of all have a healthier community. Secondly doctors need to trust in their training giving in medical school. You should not have such a drastic fear of messing up, if you were trained well, that you have to over-charge patients thus overcharging insurance companies. When they over charge then us again the clientele have a hire insurance premium. This is a never ending cycle. Insurance rates also should not be determined on your gender. It should be determined on your actual health and well being. Not on gender or age or race but your health as an individual. There is a lot that can be done about health insurance weather it is through government regulation and funding, individual ways like the ones mentioned in the article, or a total revamp of the healthcare system. But something needs to be done and soon. We cannot keep allowing people to go without proper medical care simply because they do not have health insurance. Although this article provides individual ways to fix the problem it still wont fix health care in America. Sincerely,
Comment [RL5]: Reinforce ideas that could help fix health care in America. Comment [RL3]: Can you give maybe some examples or facts about the price range and an idea of how much more females pay than males. Comment [RL4]: Give more information on what can be done,whoever getting this article will want to hear ideas of your opinion so feel free to dig deeper rather than just saying a lot can be done and listing 3 ways. Also, list what people in the community could do to lower costs. Comment [RL2]: This is considered malpractice, maybe talk about malpractice more and elaborate. Comment [RL1]: I do like how you are questioning all of these topics, they definitely need to be raised to attention. Good job here.

Kyminis E. Vialet

Kyminis E. Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu
Kyminis Vialet March 25, 2013 English 1102-041 More Research

1. What is the purpose of your piece? What information do you need in order to fulfill this purpose? The purpose of my piece is a response to an article written by Beth Howard ways to lower your health insurance premiums individually. In order to fulfill this purpose I will need to thoroughly understand the article in which I am responding to and also the subject in general; health insurance. 2. Read over the piece you are responding to. Is there anything in that piece that you do not understand, or anything that you would need to look up in order to fully understand? What more do you need to research in order to speak more intelligently about this subject? In order to fully understand this article a background of insurance premiums and determining insurance based on your doctor visits is needed. I had to research some of this information and I also had to do research on the Obama Affordable Care Act which will be in effect in 2014.

Kyminis E. Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu

3. Consider how this piece came about. If you know that this piece stemmed from a true event, what more about the event do you need to know? If you havent found a piece or event that this piece stemmed from, what do you need to research to know for sure that this article was not intentionally part of a fuller conversation? Even if this piece didnt come out of a specific event, from what you know of your subject, what might it be responding to? What else would you need to know to understand this full-circle? This article is about health insurance which has been a problem in America for several years now. When this article was written it was shortly after President elect Barrack Obama was elected into office. One of his main platforms was health insurance. This article most likely could have been a response to what is to come with the newly signed Affordable Care Act. I researched this article but could not find any other lead from which it could have stemmed. I may assume that this article could of been in response to a question asked in the Womens Health magazine for which the author writes for and from. 4. Read over your proposal. Consider what you said youd mention in your piece. In order to do this, what do you need to research? In my proposal I spoke about addressing doctors and insurance companies. In order to do this I would need to know how these companies are run and also understand the co pay method for doctors. I would also need to understand how insurance premiums are set and what exactly they go towards.

Kyminis E. Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu 5. Read over your introduction. What do you need to research in order to deliver what you promised in your intro? In order to deliver what I spoke about in my introduction. I need to be able to address health insurance as a whole. Also, I have to understand the Obama Affordable Care Act so that I could understand what exactly will be implemented in the future. Lastly I have an understanding of insurance rate and how they are determined

Consider both your intended audience and your unintended audience. Intended audience:

1. What are their interests? What will they gravitate toward in a piece? What do you need to research or do in order to captivate this audience? My intended audience is the author of this piece, doctors and insurance companies. They will be gravitated to this piece because it is about healthcare, their field and is also partly about how they were trained and run their offices and businesses. Being that this is a response article I dont believe that I will need to do much to captivate the audience because they will most likely be reading about insurance and the previous article.

Kyminis E. Vialet
Hickory Hall 9201 University City Blvd. Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 kvialet@uncc.edu Unintended audience:

2. There are always unintended audience members looking onto a piece. Who might these people be, and what might they expect from this piece? What do you need to research or include so that they will be able to interact with the piece as well? The unintended audience can be anyone in the public. From this piece they may expect to find out more about insurance prices and what alternatives can be made. In my piece I need to fully be able to explain what I am responding to and why I am responding so that they can understand my response article.

3. In order to fulfill the context and audience components of this assignment, have you looked at examples? If you are placing this article in the New York Times, what do you need to know about this newspaper and who reads it in order to fulfill the CAP components? I have explored the site which it came from, NBC News and also the magazine for which the author works.