Here's an example of the first turn of the health insurance/big pharma corporate worm as it propagandizes to protect its interests - and for its very existence in its current form.

And here's how John Perry replied to the OpEd writer Patrick McIlheran:

Your corporate insurance propaganda could not be any more naked, Patrick. How much stock do you have in the industry?

I love how you talk about the $5000 deductible and say "The trade-off is that she must accept her coverage isn't free," without making any mention of the premiums already being paid.

Here's a news flash for you: Nobody expects their coverage to be free. They expect to be covered after already paying large sums out of pocket for their policy, without be nailed yet again by insane deductibles.

Finally:

The government does not do an admirable job of running most things, she says, "and I'm not sure why health care would be any different."

Except for the fact that the government already runs a program you might be familiar with that is far more efficient and effective (do the homework, check the polls) than the private, for-profit insurance industry. It's a little single payer system called Medicare. Runs at 3-4% overhead, while the current for-profit system burns 30-plus percent of every dollar on needless bureaucratic and administrative waste. Switching to a Medicare-for-all system would save us $400 billion per year.

Please. You really need to stop insulting readers' intelligence with such sophomoric, corporate garbage. You should be ashamed of yourself.

John Perry did a masterful job of rebutting the hidden agenda, as McIlheran headlined: "You want free, but it never will be." One way that the corporate shills will attempt to paint single-payer advocates is as deadbeats looking for "something for nothing."

But the real deadbeats are the corporate insurance companies who siphon off 30 cents of every health care dollar spent for their administrative costs, their executive salaries and bonuses, and their golden parachute retirement benefits as they employ battalions of clerks to scrutinize every claim for reasons to disallow it and shift the cost back onto the insured who paid their premium for health insurance coverage.

So how do we counter them on the offensive? Every day, in every way.

That means talking to our families, friends, and neighbors about Medicare for all. It means never letting a criticism go without response. It means attending - and holding - town hall meetings held for health care reform information. It means attending legislators' listening sessions and speaking out. It means contacting both House and Senate legislators and demanding Medicare for All.