I have found a way to quickly and effectively muzzle critics of health insurance reform. I’ve used it in conversations, email exchanges with conservative friends and family, Facebook threads, you name it. It hasn’t let me down yet. You can use it too. I’d like to hear if you enjoy the same magical results.
It’s easy to stand in a room and shout "No". It’s easy to be a critic. What’s hard is having a solution to a problem. The other side has none. Expose that fact—put them in the position of enumerating a solution to a clear problem, and the silence is deafening.
So here’s what I say to them: "I’m in business for myself, so I have to pay for my family’s health insurance out of my own pocket. I spend $1,100 a month to do that. I have a son with a pre-existing condition. So any application to another health insurance company is automatically rejected. That means we’re stuck with our current insurance company. If they want to jack the premium to $4,000 a month to get us to quit, they could. So my question is, what plan do you have that provide my family an affordable alternative?"
Crickets Crickets Crickets
If you’re out to stop the discussion cold, mission accomplished. Or you can press them for an answer relentlessly until you’ve embarrassed them appropriately. It just depends how much they’ve been spouting off.
Now, I know you may not have a story like this on your own. So instead, make it the story of "a friend". I’m happy to be your friend. However, this problem is so pervasive I suspect most of you really do know a family in a similar predicament.
They’ve succeeded at putting us on the defensive, because we are assuming the role of problem solver. Put them in that same position, and reap the rewards. They are, after all, sound and fury, signifying nothing.
May I also add a quick challenge to any investigative reporters out there, from a former one myself? How great would it be to infiltrate the town hall hooligans posing as one of the mob and capture the real workings there? You could find out who the real organizers are-- how they get shipped in from outside of districts, what training they receive, and most important where the money's coming from? I'm just saying is all...