Out of Patients
with Matthew Zachary

Welcome to 2026: The Year of the Patient where the sick shall inherit the ballot.

NEWSWORTHY Matthew Zachary NEWSWORTHY Matthew Zachary

UnitedHealthcare Invited Journalists to Headquarters to Prove They’re the Good Guys. Then the CEO Called Wrongful Death Lawsuits “One-Offs.”

UnitedHealthcare invited journalists to headquarters to burnish its image. Then its CEO dismissed wrongful death lawsuits as “one-offs.” That phrase says everything about a system where denial, delay, and patient harm are treated as isolated incidents instead of the business model.

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The Fact That Patients Need Survival Guides Is the Scandal

Americans now need books to survive healthcare. That’s not evidence of empowerment. It’s evidence of failure. As affordability collapses and complexity grows, patients are being forced to become advocates, navigators, and administrators just to access care they already pay for.

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OPINION Matthew Zachary OPINION Matthew Zachary

52 Years Old and Still Here

Brain cancer at 21 forced Matthew Zachary into the American healthcare system decades before he understood its economics, incentives, and failures. At 52, he reflects on how surviving long enough to see the whole machine clearly led to writing We the Patients.

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Healthcare Is a Private Tax Triggered by Diagnosis

Gallup reports 82 million Americans cut back on daily life to afford healthcare. Coverage shifts financial risk to families through deductibles and prior authorization. Diagnosis now operates like a private tax on survival and forces tradeoffs across work, housing, and retirement.

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Breaking Up Big Medicine

The new bipartisan proposal to separate insurers, PBMs, and providers targets the financial structure behind rising costs and denials. This piece explains how ownership concentration reshaped care, why regulation failed, and what structural separation could change for patients.

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Freedom to Go Broke

After surviving brain cancer at 21, Matthew Zachary examines how modern healthcare policy repackages risk as freedom. From cash subsidies to math free promises, this essay exposes why consumer style healthcare fails the moment illness enters the room.

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