How to Talk Healthcare at the Thanksgiving Dinner Table

The general rule of thumb is not to talk politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

But what about healthcare?

Rule #1: There must be more than one person interested in healthcare.

Healthcare is inherently political. So, any discussion about a healthcare topic can get quite heated. I remember last Thanksgiving. I had one heated argument about the pros and cons of continuous glucose monitors. A lot of yelling back and forth! However, I realized after 10 minutes it was just me talking to myself. Yikes. So, do some recon and find out who else wants to talk shop.

Rule #2: Get the timing right.

Make sure you catch the vibe when you’re at the dinner table.

I know this may be obvious, but it’s worth reiterating: if everyone is chatting about how great Wicked is, don’t barge in asking, “What are people’s thoughts on Forward Health shutting down so abruptly?”

Instead, find a way to direct the conversation to the healthcare topic you desire to discuss. For example, “Yeah Wicked is great, loved it. But how wicked are these medical AI search platforms?” Boom. Smooth transition.

Rule #3: Don’t choose a boring healthcare topic.

No matter how excited you are to bring up a healthcare topic, please keep in mind that no one in the family wants to talk about something boring. While the work being done in the Hospital at Home space may excite you, talking about it will put your family to sleep.

Trust me…

Last Thanksgiving, I tried talking to my family about Medicare Advantage. Boring. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just me that was boring them as opposed to the actual healthcare topic. So, I then told them my wife and I were expecting a new daughter in July. Smiles, tears of joy, and questions quickly ensued. So yeah… it was the healthcare topic, not me.

I’ve listed below some topics to avoid and some topics to bring up:

Three Healthcare Topics to Avoid (read: too boring):

• How to reduce polypharmacy errors.

• The VA’s struggle to modernize their EHR.

• Cutting Hospital Costs: Move Screening Colonoscopies to ASCs

Three Healthcare Topics to Bring Up (read: spicy):

• Why Forward Health failed to scale a tech-forward (ha) primary care company.

• The implications of private equity in healthcare

• The evidence for and against whole body imaging scans in healthy adults

Rule #4: Beware of the knowledgeable relative.

So now you have the hot topics to bring up and the boring topics to avoid at the Thanksgiving dinner table. There’s always a tiny chance that someone like Uncle Joe, a fitness freak, catches you off guard with his continuous glucose monitoring knowledge. Or Aunt Sally, who works in private equity, rattles off the pros of private equity in healthcare.

Stay calm if they challenge you.

Go to the bathroom. Go to healthcarehuddle.com. Find the appropriate resources to touch up on your niche healthcare knowledge quickly. CGMs here. Private equity here.

Rule #5: Watch the spice meter.

Pay attention to how heated the conversation is, and divert to a more neutral topic if possible. Sometimes, the conversation gets so heated over a spicy topic, but you may not notice since you’re also so fired up.

You should, therefore, know how to recognize a conversation is getting heated. The most specific test (tested and validated by the Dashevsky household) is table occupancy. If your table occupancy decreases by two or more during the course of the conversation, then it’s getting heated. Those two people left the table because they were uncomfortable or bored by what you, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Sally were arguing about. When this happens, you must divert to a more neutral topic:

• Did you see these six ways to save on prescription drug pricing?

• Why does it take so long to see my dermatologist?

• Can you believe Grandma sat in the emergency department for three days waiting for a bed?

• Why is cousin Jared working so much as an internal medicine resident?

• These GLP-1 medications are going to save the world.

Rule #6: There will never be a resolution to an argument about healthcare.

Since no healthcare problem will ever be solved in our lifetime, there will be no resolution to the argument/conversation you had.

Rule #7: Do not send a follow-up email.

At this point, dessert is being served. Your family is now uninterested in discussing healthcare, no matter how provoking the topic may be. You may be tempted to send a follow-up email to your family tomorrow morning, recapping the topics discussed, who said what, and what the final outcome was.

Please don’t do this.

Instead, tell your family members—especially the physicians—to join the Huddle here.

So there you have it. Seven rules to follow to have a pleasant conversation about healthcare at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

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