Rhetorical Analysis: The Affordable Care Act

Around the nation, many parents are plagued with the thought of how they can afford to provide proper care to their children with mental illness. Millions of individuals suffer daily from the effects of various forms of mental illness. Such forms vary from moderate to extremely severe forms that require expensive treatment. Some individuals are fortunate to beat illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, while others suffer from permanent illnesses that are extremely difficult to maintain and treat. As healthcare is very costly, many rely on financial assistance through medicaid. As congress moves to repeal the Affordable Care Act, parents continue to struggle with the realization that they may no longer be able to support

their children. By repealing the ACA, $800 Billion tax cuts will be made and the money will be diverted elsewhere, thus leaving the mentally ill to fend for themselves. A writer by the name Jaycee Kemp, who writes an article called, “ Why You Should Be Struggling With The Idea Of Medicaid As a Handout,” uses her experience to demonstrate the importance of Medicaid in an effort to compel people to create a push to stop the repeal of the ACA.
Kemp wishes to create a sympathetic response within her audience by appealing to ethos and pathos.

Her article is featured in the Huffington Post, a well known platform that many rely on to receive information on a variety of social issues around the nation. Kemp uses an appeal to ethos to instill a good sense of character and credibility within the audience. Kemp describes her fears for caring for her disabled son as, “ Where will my baby go when he meets his cap? I have split my time between working and paying taxes to the country I am asking to help and I am also providing his care.” A social worker and advocate for mental health services, Kemp, appeals to her ethos as she has first hand experience as a parent in dealing with the financial and emotional stresses of caring for someone with a mental illness. Kemp uses her appeal to ethos to then create an example of pathos. Through the way in which she portrays the difficulties in earning enough money to provide for her child, Kemp generates sympathy throughout her audience. Now that Kemp has captured the hearts of the audience, she spreads a message calling upon society to reject the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, which would leave parents and the children they care for in a state of

uncertainty.
Throughout the article Kemp refers to a story that depicts the importance of medicaid and how without it families can be left with nothing. The story illustrates how their is far more to one’s story than meets the eye. After continuously noticing a homeless man sitting outside of a hospital, a lady in Texas approached the man and asked why he was there. The man said he was waiting for his mother. It was discovered that the man was mentally ill, and his mother died while undergoing an emergency surgery three years prior; therefore, as he was told to wait outside, that is where he stood waiting for his mother return daily. His mother insisted he stay outside because she mistakingly imagined that he would be sent off to a care facilty where once he hit his funding cap, would be dropped onto the streets to survive alone. Kemp insists that without medicaid, similar fate could one day fall upon her little boy. She then describes, “That guy may have once been your white, upper middle-class neighbor’s 11 year old child who you thought was a ‘cool little dude’. Where do you think those kids go when they have no one? Is he somehow different?” Kemp uses this example to visualize how the homeless man is no less deserving than the cute little boy who is mentally ill. Without the proper resources and care, the cute little boy evolves into the dirty homeless man walking the streets confused and desperate for his next meal. Kemp utilizes the story to best enhance the effect of pathos in an effort to creating support for her cause, as no parent wishes to provide a future for their children where they have no place to call home.
As people are most likely to support and donate to a cause that directly benefits to them, Kemp is forced to think outside the box as not all people care for individuals with a mental illness. She must instill the mindest into each individual that visualizes the uncertain future than many parent s face for their mentally ill children. This is crucial in compelling in gaining support as no mother or father wishes those circumstances upon any child. Kemp asks:
Where will my baby go when he meets his cap? I have split my time between working and paying taxes to the country I am asking to help and I am also providing his care. How do you keep a job ensuring your commitment as a taxpayer while also caring for your child to make sure he is safe and productive?
Kemp asks these questions to her audience in an effort to further instill the mindset of what it is like to care for a child with a disability. It forces the audience to ask themselves the same questions if they were to be in a similar circumstance. By asking themselves the same questions, one realized the grave importance of medicaid as a form of financial backing.
As there are many forms of mental illness and different levels of severity, each case is varies in several ways.

Kemp is outraged with the notion that medicaid is often deemed a “handout.” She insists, “No job...I’m a freeloader. Job....I’m not taking care of my own. The circular logic for the reduction of assistance and subsidies is just that ridiculous.” She demonstrates how under any circumstance, she is ridiculed in efforts to further justify cutting medicaid funding. Kemp finds this logic ignorant as there are many deserving recipients of medicaid, who will end up like the homeless man without such care. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, Kemp proclaims that the money will be diverted into to tax cuts for people who don’t need them. Thus leading to a life of homelessness and poverty to many mentally ill individuals. Kemp urges each individual to call their members of congress in an effort to upholf the value of human

life.
In an effort to prevent the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, Kemp uses personal experiences as well as appeals to ethos and pathos to best compel her audience. Kemp’s article provides great insight into how to evaluate the necessity of medicaid funding. Through repealing the Affordable Care Act a common consensus is proclaimed that medicaid is a free handout, however through Kemp’s revelations, one is able to understand how each situation is different and in some cases mentally ill individuals rely on medicaid in order to survive. Before Congess moves to cut $800 billion in medicaid, each individual must understand that there is more than meets the eye in every situation. What if your child was mentally ill?