It's "The Hill" Day

[HILL DAY FOR MZ]

30 years ago, brain cancer taught my family and me how fast a life-altering diagnosis turns into a billing exercise. Since then, the system has only gotten better at extracting money while pretending that harm is an accident.

ACA subsidies are gone. Premiums are up 114% in 2026.

1 in 4 people who depended on that coverage are now uninsured, and millions will burn through deductibles by February while staying in jobs they hate for insurance, or delay care because the bill feels scarier than the disease.

I wrote an op ed for The Hill because this moment changes the political math. There are 19 million cancer survivors and roughly 150 million Americans living with chronic conditions.

They remember every delay, every denial, every EOB that reads like a threat. These traumatic experiences never fade. But they do vote.

America’s sick are not a niche group. We represent the largest bipartisan single-issue voter bloc yet to be organized.

I vehemently avow that 2026 is the “Year of the Patient,” and the sick shall inherit the ballot. Lawmakers who keep voting against healthcare protections should expect consequences.

Read my full piece in The Hill here ⬇️

https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/5669986-america-sick-health-care/

Matthew Zachary

Matthew Zachary has spent three decades fighting to make the American healthcare system less cruel, organizing millions through advocacy and media. A former concert pianist whose life was turned upside down by brain cancer at just 21, he founded Stupid Cancer, the largest nonprofit for young adults with cancer. He also launched The Stupid Cancer Show, widely regarded as the first healthcare podcast, which later evolved into the award-winning Out of Patients. He produced Cancer Mavericks, a documentary series about the rebel patients who changed modern oncology. He is CEO and Co-Founder of We The Patients, a national movement organizing patients into collective civic power, and the author of We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America’s Healthcare Nightmare (Wiley, May 2026) with Jen Singer.

https://www.matthewzachary.com
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