It’s Time For A Second Opinion
A blinking answering machine.
That's how I found out I had brain cancer. December 1995. My parents' bedroom. I was 21, and the radiologist couldn't be bothered to call back during business hours.
Thirty years later, I wrote a book about it.
But here's the thing about surviving something that should have killed you: you either shut up or never shut up. (Guess which one I did?)
"We the Patients: Understanding, Surviving, and Navigating America's Healthcare Nightmare" drops May 19 from Wiley. Pre-orders are live.
This isn't a memoir. It's a manual.
Think of it as a dark, sardonic comedy/history explainer about why American Healthcare can't have nice things. (Brilliantly laden with all the Gen X pop-culture references you’ve come to expect from me by now.)
Because if you don't laugh at a system that charges $800 for saline and calls it "care," you'll cry into your Explanation of Benefits.
I keep thinking about my dad driving me back and forth from Staten Island to Sloan Kettering. We hit 51st Street one day, and there's a truck blocking the road. So, Mayo Lou just... drove up onto the curb. Worked around it. Got me home.
That's American healthcare. The system isn't broken. It was built this way. And for 30 years, patients have been driving up onto curbs just to survive it.
Here's the thing: Don't try to fix it. Rig it in your favor.
This book shows you how.
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→ Wendell Potter: "A clarion call for how we can all work together to rig the system to better serve patients, not corporate interests."
→ Jeremy Abbate, Scientific American: "Essential reading."
→ Jim Weiss, Real Chemistry: "Matthew gives voice to the people who live inside the data."
→ Karen Knudsen, Parker Institute: "Required reading for anyone shaping cancer care."
→ Jody Hoyos, Prevent Cancer Foundation: "I could not put this book down.”
→ Lisa C. Richardson: “Matthew lays the groundwork for the coming healthcare revolution."
→ Lisa Fitzpatrick: "Matthew Zachary exposes how a tone-deaf for-profit healthcare system fails millions.”
→ Barb Collura: "We The Patients explains why patients feel angry and lost and shows they are not failing the system. The system is failing them."
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Pre-order link in comments. Limited time offer included.
Welcome to 2026: The Year of the Patient, where the sick shall inherit the ballot.
PRE-ORDER LINK ➡️ https://WeThePatientsBook.com
