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We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America's Healthcare Nightmare
We the Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America's Healthcare Nightmare
"A blistering exposé... a fiery yet hopeful portrait of a broken system." ― Publisher's Weekly
"Whereas many people have put their finger on the problem with our healthcare system, Matthew Zachary puts his fist down the problem's throat." ― Greg Simon, Executive Director of the White House Cancer Moonshot under Vice President Biden
Take control of your healthcare ― and understand the rights that protect you.
In America, it's hard enough to stay healthy. It's doubly brutal when your care and your outcome hinge on one "What insurance do you have?"
Diagnosed with brain cancer at 21, and thirty years later known as what People magazine called "the people's voice in healthcare," Stupid Cancer founder Matthew Zachary learned how to work America's convoluted healthcare don't fix it, rig it in your favor. We the Patients is a proclamation for patient activism ― part survival manual, part call to arms ― showing you how to navigate a system built to confuse and exhaust the people it claims to serve.
It
Why American healthcare isn't broken ― it's designed this way, and understanding the design is the first step toward fighting back The awareness trap ― why disease awareness campaigns aren't enough, and what consumer protections and targeted activism can do instead Patients as consumers ― the surprising solution to sixty years of denials, delays, and damage Patients as an untapped civic bloc ― the case for turning 19 million cancer survivors, and the millions more who love and care for them, into organized political power We the Patients is an unfiltered look at what happens when the healthcare system fails real people, and a blueprint for fighting back. Required reading for anyone navigating illness, caregiving, working in healthcare, or simply trying to stay human in a system that makes that harder every year.
Praise for We the
"We The Patients belongs to every person fatigued, frustrated, and forsaken by the maze that passes for our healthcare system." ― Lisa Fitzpatrick, MD, MPH, MPA, Former Medicaid Chief Medical Officer, Medicaid
"Where Thomas Paine's Common Sense helped ignite the American Revolution, Matthew Zachary gives voice to a new Patient Revolution." ― Jeremy Abbate, Publisher, Scientific American
"We The Patients restores humanity to healthcare." ― Wendell Potter, Healthcare Whistleblower, Executive Editor of HEALTH CARE un-Covered
"Required reading for anyone shaping cancer care." ― Karen E. Knudsen, MBA PhD, CEO, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; Former CEO, American Cancer Society
"A blistering exposé... a fiery yet hopeful portrait of a broken system." ― Publisher's Weekly
"Whereas many people have put their finger on the problem with our healthcare system, Matthew Zachary puts his fist down the problem's throat." ― Greg Simon, Executive Director of the White House Cancer Moonshot under Vice President Biden
Take control of your healthcare ― and understand the rights that protect you.
In America, it's hard enough to stay healthy. It's doubly brutal when your care and your outcome hinge on one "What insurance do you have?"
Diagnosed with brain cancer at 21, and thirty years later known as what People magazine called "the people's voice in healthcare," Stupid Cancer founder Matthew Zachary learned how to work America's convoluted healthcare don't fix it, rig it in your favor. We the Patients is a proclamation for patient activism ― part survival manual, part call to arms ― showing you how to navigate a system built to confuse and exhaust the people it claims to serve.
It
Why American healthcare isn't broken ― it's designed this way, and understanding the design is the first step toward fighting back The awareness trap ― why disease awareness campaigns aren't enough, and what consumer protections and targeted activism can do instead Patients as consumers ― the surprising solution to sixty years of denials, delays, and damage Patients as an untapped civic bloc ― the case for turning 19 million cancer survivors, and the millions more who love and care for them, into organized political power We the Patients is an unfiltered look at what happens when the healthcare system fails real people, and a blueprint for fighting back. Required reading for anyone navigating illness, caregiving, working in healthcare, or simply trying to stay human in a system that makes that harder every year.
Praise for We the
"We The Patients belongs to every person fatigued, frustrated, and forsaken by the maze that passes for our healthcare system." ― Lisa Fitzpatrick, MD, MPH, MPA, Former Medicaid Chief Medical Officer, Medicaid
"Where Thomas Paine's Common Sense helped ignite the American Revolution, Matthew Zachary gives voice to a new Patient Revolution." ― Jeremy Abbate, Publisher, Scientific American
"We The Patients restores humanity to healthcare." ― Wendell Potter, Healthcare Whistleblower, Executive Editor of HEALTH CARE un-Covered
"Required reading for anyone shaping cancer care." ― Karen E. Knudsen, MBA PhD, CEO, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; Former CEO, American Cancer Society
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 19, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 16, 2026
Matthew Zachary is a friend of mine, and this book embodies all that he fights for and has been advocating for the last three decades. He founded Stupid Cancer, an organization dedicated to supporting young adults (ages 17-39) fighting cancer, their caregivers, and loved ones. Now, he is leading the charge to change the course of healthcare for all — including cancer patients. He is right: we are fed up and ready for change. As someone who truly did not truly understand healthcare and its history, this book helped me so much. I feel like I got a comprehensible crash course in the history of healthcare, where we are now, where we are headed, and where we need to be. Please, if you use healthcare in any form (which is everyone), pick up this book. It’s a must.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I read We the Patients in two sittings. And the only reason it took two is that I had to put it down after Chapter 2 and sit with what Matthew Zachary had just done to my understanding of how we got here.
Let me be direct. I have spent my career inside the healthcare system. I built a company around making patient advocacy a strategic function. I have sat across the table from pharma executives, insurance reps, and policy leaders. I have studied the data. I have lived the patient experience. And I am telling you: Matthew Zachary just wrote the most important book on American healthcare that will hit shelves this year.
We the Patients (Wiley, 2026) does something almost no one in healthcare media has the guts to do. It names names. It traces the money. It connects the Nixon-era HMO Act of 1973, where John Ehrlichman literally told the President that the incentive was "less medical care" because "the more money they make," all the way to the AI-powered claim denials running through UnitedHealthcare's system today. Zachary draws a straight line from that conversation to why your oncologist's PET scan order gets stamped "not medically necessary" by a robot.
And he does it without losing you.
The writing moves. Co-authored with Jen Singer, the book reads like a conversation with someone who has earned the right to be furious and channels that fury into something productive. Zachary survived a rare brain tumor at 21. He founded Stupid Cancer, the largest young adult cancer community in the world. He spent three decades inside the belly of the beast. People magazine called him "the people's voice in healthcare." He lives up to it here.
What separates this book from every other healthcare expose is the solution framework. Zachary does not stop at diagnosis. He lays out a Nonprofit 2.0 model that reframes patient advocacy from charity for victims to rights for consumers and power for patients. He walks through real legislative wins at the state level, from North Carolina's Care First Act to Maryland's AI-in-insurance-denials law, and shows how state-level bipartisan pushback has historically seeded federal reform. He proves the pattern. Pre-existing condition protections started in Kentucky and New Jersey 30 years before the ACA codified them. Romneycare tested the individual mandate before Obamacare scaled it. The playbook exists. Zachary maps it.
The data will make your stomach turn. Two-thirds of all bankruptcies in the US are medical. UnitedHealth Group pulled in $400.3 billion in 2024 revenue. For every $100 a healthcare consumer spends, only $68 reaches actual care. Investors sued UnitedHealthcare after the Brian Thompson murder because the company pulled back on aggressive denial strategies and it hurt profitability. Read that again. Investors sued because the company started denying fewer claims.
Zachary also tackles the PBM racket, Medicare Advantage overbilling (an estimated $84 billion in overpayments), and the current administration's cuts to the National Cancer Institute, which threaten to derail clinical trials that represent a last hope for real people.
The Proclamation that opens the book reads like a founding document. Because it is one. "No more prior authorizations. No more robot denials. No more appeals. We are stronger than any insurance claim. We are louder than any denial letter."
For anyone in pharma, biotech, advocacy, or patient engagement who still thinks the patient voice is a nice-to-have, this book will recalibrate your understanding of what patients are actually dealing with and what they are ready to do about it.
For patients and caregivers who feel like the system runs them over every single day, Zachary wrote this for you. He dedicates it to "the souls who didn't live long enough to see the system change" and "the families who mortgaged their futures to buy another month." He means it.
We the Patients drops this summer. Get it. Read it. Then do something with it.
Matthew Zachary did not write a book. He lit a match.
Let me be direct. I have spent my career inside the healthcare system. I built a company around making patient advocacy a strategic function. I have sat across the table from pharma executives, insurance reps, and policy leaders. I have studied the data. I have lived the patient experience. And I am telling you: Matthew Zachary just wrote the most important book on American healthcare that will hit shelves this year.
We the Patients (Wiley, 2026) does something almost no one in healthcare media has the guts to do. It names names. It traces the money. It connects the Nixon-era HMO Act of 1973, where John Ehrlichman literally told the President that the incentive was "less medical care" because "the more money they make," all the way to the AI-powered claim denials running through UnitedHealthcare's system today. Zachary draws a straight line from that conversation to why your oncologist's PET scan order gets stamped "not medically necessary" by a robot.
And he does it without losing you.
The writing moves. Co-authored with Jen Singer, the book reads like a conversation with someone who has earned the right to be furious and channels that fury into something productive. Zachary survived a rare brain tumor at 21. He founded Stupid Cancer, the largest young adult cancer community in the world. He spent three decades inside the belly of the beast. People magazine called him "the people's voice in healthcare." He lives up to it here.
What separates this book from every other healthcare expose is the solution framework. Zachary does not stop at diagnosis. He lays out a Nonprofit 2.0 model that reframes patient advocacy from charity for victims to rights for consumers and power for patients. He walks through real legislative wins at the state level, from North Carolina's Care First Act to Maryland's AI-in-insurance-denials law, and shows how state-level bipartisan pushback has historically seeded federal reform. He proves the pattern. Pre-existing condition protections started in Kentucky and New Jersey 30 years before the ACA codified them. Romneycare tested the individual mandate before Obamacare scaled it. The playbook exists. Zachary maps it.
The data will make your stomach turn. Two-thirds of all bankruptcies in the US are medical. UnitedHealth Group pulled in $400.3 billion in 2024 revenue. For every $100 a healthcare consumer spends, only $68 reaches actual care. Investors sued UnitedHealthcare after the Brian Thompson murder because the company pulled back on aggressive denial strategies and it hurt profitability. Read that again. Investors sued because the company started denying fewer claims.
Zachary also tackles the PBM racket, Medicare Advantage overbilling (an estimated $84 billion in overpayments), and the current administration's cuts to the National Cancer Institute, which threaten to derail clinical trials that represent a last hope for real people.
The Proclamation that opens the book reads like a founding document. Because it is one. "No more prior authorizations. No more robot denials. No more appeals. We are stronger than any insurance claim. We are louder than any denial letter."
For anyone in pharma, biotech, advocacy, or patient engagement who still thinks the patient voice is a nice-to-have, this book will recalibrate your understanding of what patients are actually dealing with and what they are ready to do about it.
For patients and caregivers who feel like the system runs them over every single day, Zachary wrote this for you. He dedicates it to "the souls who didn't live long enough to see the system change" and "the families who mortgaged their futures to buy another month." He means it.
We the Patients drops this summer. Get it. Read it. Then do something with it.
Matthew Zachary did not write a book. He lit a match.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was fortunate enough to have received an advance manuscript copy of this book prior to publication. These are my thoughts on the book.
I just finished reading "We The Patients", and I'm terribly impressed!
Matthew Zachary did a phenomenal job of using his personal experience to help the flow of the history lesson of the American healthcare system and turned it into something easily digested by any reader.
In the book, he brings both warm-hearted anecdotes and cold, hard facts to life to illustrate how our healthcare system is failing us, and finished the story with a hopeful note on how WE ALL can band together and take back our power as healthcare consumers.
When you see the glaring abuses the players that currently hold and wield the power in the American healthcare system commit, I can easily see people seeing themselves in the anecdotes and saying, "Hey, I went through that, too!"
What I also see will be readers then getting angry about how the system is rigged against them and how badly they've been screwed even though they follow all of the "rules" to obtain the care they deserve.
Then I see them realizing there IS a way to fight back against improper billing or ridiculous denials, and having a sense that maybe they can fight back on their own medical issues.
By the end of the book, I can see readers having a feeling of hope that they CAN change the system to the benefit of the PATIENTS, and what will be the start of a revolutionary movement in this country.
Matthew does a fantastic job of taking readers on a bit of a roller-coaster ride, first showing us the issues, plunging us into despair and anger, and then finally showing us a way to change our future for the better.
This book should be required reading for everyone working IN the healthcare system, as well as highly suggested reading for those of us who want to make the healthcare system work on OUR behalf.
I just finished reading "We The Patients", and I'm terribly impressed!
Matthew Zachary did a phenomenal job of using his personal experience to help the flow of the history lesson of the American healthcare system and turned it into something easily digested by any reader.
In the book, he brings both warm-hearted anecdotes and cold, hard facts to life to illustrate how our healthcare system is failing us, and finished the story with a hopeful note on how WE ALL can band together and take back our power as healthcare consumers.
When you see the glaring abuses the players that currently hold and wield the power in the American healthcare system commit, I can easily see people seeing themselves in the anecdotes and saying, "Hey, I went through that, too!"
What I also see will be readers then getting angry about how the system is rigged against them and how badly they've been screwed even though they follow all of the "rules" to obtain the care they deserve.
Then I see them realizing there IS a way to fight back against improper billing or ridiculous denials, and having a sense that maybe they can fight back on their own medical issues.
By the end of the book, I can see readers having a feeling of hope that they CAN change the system to the benefit of the PATIENTS, and what will be the start of a revolutionary movement in this country.
Matthew does a fantastic job of taking readers on a bit of a roller-coaster ride, first showing us the issues, plunging us into despair and anger, and then finally showing us a way to change our future for the better.
This book should be required reading for everyone working IN the healthcare system, as well as highly suggested reading for those of us who want to make the healthcare system work on OUR behalf.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I received an advance manuscript copy of We The Patients prior to publication. These are my honest thoughts.
Matthew Zachary feels like a walking improbability. Thirty years after his diagnosis, he carries equal parts gratitude, rage, humor, and clarity. That combination drives this book.
For decades, Matthew has shown up for cancer patients in ways the healthcare system often refuses to. His work has given people language, agency, and permission to demand better. That history sits behind every page here.
He writes about American healthcare with honesty and restraint. He openly acknowledges the clinicians, caregivers, and institutions that saved his life and showed up with compassion. At the same time, he names the harm caused by insurers and systems built around delay, denial, and deflection. He does not hedge. He does not soften the consequences. The damage is emotional, financial, and lifelong, and he makes that impossible to ignore.
Labels feel inadequate. Advocate fits. Truth teller fits. Podcast pioneer fits. So does relentless pain in the ass to powerful people who deserve it. What stands out most is his refusal to turn suffering into sentimentality. He tells the truth plainly, and then he keeps going.
The reading experience surprised me. I laughed. I got angry. I stopped more than once just to sit with what he laid out. He finds humor where it feels illegal to find humor. He earns it. That balance makes the hard parts hit harder.
We The Patients is clear eyed, unsettling, and unexpectedly humane. It names a broken system without erasing the people trying to survive inside it. Matthew’s leadership and stubbornness point toward a version of healthcare that treats people like human beings first. That future feels possible after reading this book.
Matthew Zachary feels like a walking improbability. Thirty years after his diagnosis, he carries equal parts gratitude, rage, humor, and clarity. That combination drives this book.
For decades, Matthew has shown up for cancer patients in ways the healthcare system often refuses to. His work has given people language, agency, and permission to demand better. That history sits behind every page here.
He writes about American healthcare with honesty and restraint. He openly acknowledges the clinicians, caregivers, and institutions that saved his life and showed up with compassion. At the same time, he names the harm caused by insurers and systems built around delay, denial, and deflection. He does not hedge. He does not soften the consequences. The damage is emotional, financial, and lifelong, and he makes that impossible to ignore.
Labels feel inadequate. Advocate fits. Truth teller fits. Podcast pioneer fits. So does relentless pain in the ass to powerful people who deserve it. What stands out most is his refusal to turn suffering into sentimentality. He tells the truth plainly, and then he keeps going.
The reading experience surprised me. I laughed. I got angry. I stopped more than once just to sit with what he laid out. He finds humor where it feels illegal to find humor. He earns it. That balance makes the hard parts hit harder.
We The Patients is clear eyed, unsettling, and unexpectedly humane. It names a broken system without erasing the people trying to survive inside it. Matthew’s leadership and stubbornness point toward a version of healthcare that treats people like human beings first. That future feels possible after reading this book.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was honored to receive an advance manuscript copy of this book prior to publication. These are my honest thoughts, from a perspective of dual identities:
As a patient. As a survivor. This book speaks to a layer of truth that is too often ignored.
We the Patients presents the facts clearly and unflinchingly, but what makes it truly powerful is how deeply relatable those facts are for anyone who has lived inside America’s healthcare system. Many of us have been denied resources, support, and care not because we failed, but because the system failed us. We need help. As a survivor, I need support—and I will continue to need support for the rest of my life. This country owes that to me.
Matthew Zachary gives voice to what so many patients carry quietly: the long-term consequences of survival, the emotional and financial toll, and the constant labor of self-advocacy just to be heard. This book doesn’t ask for sympathy—it calls for accountability.
As a public health professional, I consider this a must-read for anyone studying public health, public policy, or health economics. It offers something rarely found in classrooms or briefings: the survivor’s perspective alongside the data. These are the voices that are too often excluded from policy conversations, yet are essential to understanding the true cost of our healthcare system.
Healthcare is not theoretical. It is lived. And the people who live it deserve to be heard. The people deserve change.
As a patient. As a survivor. This book speaks to a layer of truth that is too often ignored.
We the Patients presents the facts clearly and unflinchingly, but what makes it truly powerful is how deeply relatable those facts are for anyone who has lived inside America’s healthcare system. Many of us have been denied resources, support, and care not because we failed, but because the system failed us. We need help. As a survivor, I need support—and I will continue to need support for the rest of my life. This country owes that to me.
Matthew Zachary gives voice to what so many patients carry quietly: the long-term consequences of survival, the emotional and financial toll, and the constant labor of self-advocacy just to be heard. This book doesn’t ask for sympathy—it calls for accountability.
As a public health professional, I consider this a must-read for anyone studying public health, public policy, or health economics. It offers something rarely found in classrooms or briefings: the survivor’s perspective alongside the data. These are the voices that are too often excluded from policy conversations, yet are essential to understanding the true cost of our healthcare system.
Healthcare is not theoretical. It is lived. And the people who live it deserve to be heard. The people deserve change.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I received an advance copy, and as a former cancer patient myself, I can say this is the book that needed to be written.
We the Patients exposes the reality that fighting cancer often means fighting the system too — insurance battles, financial stress, confusing regulations, and endless red tape when patients should be focused on staying alive. Matthew Zachary says out loud what so many of us experienced but didn’t have the words for.
What makes this book stand out is that it doesn’t just complain — it looks for solutions. It challenges healthcare, policy, and advocacy to do better and puts the focus back where it belongs: on the patient.
Honest, smart, frustrating, and necessary.
Every patient, survivor, caregiver, and medical professional should read this.
Congrats Matato!
We the Patients exposes the reality that fighting cancer often means fighting the system too — insurance battles, financial stress, confusing regulations, and endless red tape when patients should be focused on staying alive. Matthew Zachary says out loud what so many of us experienced but didn’t have the words for.
What makes this book stand out is that it doesn’t just complain — it looks for solutions. It challenges healthcare, policy, and advocacy to do better and puts the focus back where it belongs: on the patient.
Honest, smart, frustrating, and necessary.
Every patient, survivor, caregiver, and medical professional should read this.
Congrats Matato!
July 27, 2026
We the Patients is a must read for patients, advocates oncologists , health center administrators and every Congressman and Senator ! It provides the history of the healthcare system in the US via his diagnosis with brain cancer. He shares how other organizations have been able to make changes locally and countrywide. And he points out how we can be the voice of change. As a fellow cancer advocate ( I’ve known Matt for almost 20 years ) I have seem the difference he had made in the lives of adolescents and young adult cancer patients . This book can make a difference in every cancer patient’s life.
Review of advance copy received from Author
We The Patients explains why patients feel angry and lost and shows they are not failing the system. The system is failing them. Part history lesson, part personal story, part call to action, “We The Patients” takes the reader through a journey that by the end you want to jump up and shout “Sign my up, Matt!" I received a manuscript of the book prior to its release. Everyone who has been a patient, a caregiver, or cares about someone dealing with a chronic condition, should read this book.
Read
February 10, 2026Disclosure: I received an advance manuscript copy of this book prior to publication, however, these are my honest thoughts.
We The Patients is a powerful, unflinching manifesto for anyone failed by the American healthcare system. Matthew Zachary blends sharp critique with hard‑earned hope, giving voice to patients too often ignored. A compelling call for a true patient‑led revolution—and essential reading for every healthcare stakeholder.
We The Patients is a powerful, unflinching manifesto for anyone failed by the American healthcare system. Matthew Zachary blends sharp critique with hard‑earned hope, giving voice to patients too often ignored. A compelling call for a true patient‑led revolution—and essential reading for every healthcare stakeholder.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was sent a pre-production copy of “We the Patients” because of my more than 24 years of involvement in the cancer advocacy space. Matthew’s book is a wake up call and a call to arms (not violence) to fight the current health system and make it work for patients instead of against them. Part history of healthcare, part personal memoir, part action plan, “We the Patients” does it all. Don’t sleep on this book. Read it, and let’s f’ing go!
November 2, 2026
I found this book to be an easy read, and insightful in understanding how truly broken the health care system is. I will be interested to see if his efforts can lead to meaningful change. The analogy of Ralph Nader and needing an "unsafe at any speed" moment for some of the shortcomings of the system was a great framing. The idea of change inspires hope even if it feels like tilting at windmills.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Matt Zachary does a brilliant job of brilliantly explaining how we got where we are with the American healthcare system. And despite a long history of moving farther away from patient centered health, Matt gives hope that there is a way towards a better future. The book is a must read for anyone who has felt unseen and unheard while navigating a health issue.
July 25, 2026
This book should be required reading for everyone in order to understand where the problems in our Healthcare system exist in this country. I’ve been saying for years that our system is broken, but the author has changed the way I look at it to see that our system is rigged against the patient. I would have given it five stars if the author’s political bias didn’t come across so blatantly.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews