Brills and the Bitter Pill
Brills, the founder of Court TV is renowned or his penchant to address what can be termed as complicated national policy issues such as education and healthcare. The Bitter Pill address pertinent issues that are deeply rooted in America's health care system and the healthcare reforms. The rhetoric strategy used by Brill, which starts with the title of the book itself, helps reinforce Brill's argument regarding the healthcare system. In an attempt to impress on the reader, why the subject of discussion in this book is indeed a bitter pill, Brill highlights some key eye-opening yet disappointing real-life experiences. Some of these issues include the 'chargemaster' system which is the American health system which allows the hospital administrators to charge expensively since they have higher bargaining power over the patients and the insurers. He cites a case of a husband and wife who were underinsured but insured and how they created a 'death panel' to assess the medical cost that would be required to keep the husband alive in the hospital for just one more month.
The Rhetoric Strategy
The rhetoric strategy is often used to persuade the reader into looking more closely at the subject of discussion. Moreover, the use of this strategy helps the author to effectively deliver their intended message. As such while one might not agree with Brill's conclusions, they cannot ignore the fact that he presents what can be termed as a thrilling account of the American health system. On the face of it, it is imperative that one might consider the American health to be one of the best in terms of inclusivity and affordability; at least for the American citizens. However, Brill's post leaves little to be desired of the American health care system. According to Brill, the American health care system is all about the fight for power involving the insurers, patients, suppliers of medical equipment, the general public, insurers, and hospitals. In his account of the Affordable Care Act, Brill acknowledges that all of these participants benefited in some way by the general public was left with no concrete way of managing their health cost (Brill, p 63).
Supporting Personal Stories
One of the rhetorical strategies used by Brill in the bitter and that effectively supports his overall argument is the personal stories of actual patients who have had to contend with the flawed American health care system. He cites a patient billed $21,000 for a heartburn and another billed $83,900 for the first round of chemotherapy to mention but a few (Brill, p 50). Essentially, a national health care system and more so an affordable health care system is supposed to be exactly that: affordable. However, as Brill points out, to the vast majority of American citizens affordability of medical health services way out of reach. Additionally, Brill's argument is further supported by the rhetoric in which he addresses key supporters of the affordable care act. This includes the sad demise of a key advocate for Obama's push for affordable health care, Edward Kennedy. Interestingly, the Democrats push for health care reforms gets derailed by the appointment of Scott Brown, a Republican, to the position initially held by Kennedy. These are just some of the rhetoric strategies that reinforce Brill's argument that while the American health system is desirable in various aspects, the same cannot be said for the cost one is forced to incur to access the health services.
Works cited
Brill, Steven. "Bitter pill." Time 181 (2013): 16-55.
