Ralph Nader and I discuss "Never Pay the First Bill"

I've been a big fan of Ralph Nader since I was old enough to know about him. Nader has been one of the leading public advocates in our country since the 1960s. So it was a tremendous honor to sit for an hour-long interview with him for his radio show, which ran over this past weekend on stations across the country. Click the link below to LISTEN to the interview. 

Nader, 87, is extremely sharp, detailed, engaged - and has so much experience bringing about change. He's also known for pushing, so it's no surprise that he pushed me about my book, "Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win." He was a big fan and praised the book, but I think one of the more interesting parts of our conversation is our different approaches to standing up for what's right. 

Nader believes in public policy solutions, and challenged me because I don't advocate for universal health care in my book. My book is not a policy book and I didn't write it for policy wonks. I believe our elected officials have failed us, on both sides of the aisle. And I see that employers and working Americans need REAL HELP, RIGHT NOW, to reverse the unjustified and oppressive high costs of our health care system. I also believe that employers and working Americans have a tremendous amount of power to fix this problem, and their main limitation is that they have not been EQUIPPED to take it on. That's my mission. We had a stimulating back and forth about our perspectives! He pushed me and I pushed back. 

You'll also enjoy the part where Nader stumped me by asking me to recount one of the many specific statistics in my book. He gave me the page number and had me look it up! Hilarious and somewhat awkward, but also amusing and I got through it.

And if you're wondering what makes me tick, Nader helped me get to the heart of it. I'm passionate about EMPOWERING employers and working Americans to save big money on their health care, without compromising the care they need. It's already happening across the country, as my book shows. My "Never Pay Pathway" health literacy videos, which are currently in production, are going to help scale the solutions. Stay tuned!