FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Who is Matthew Zachary?
Matthew Zachary is a brain cancer survivor, healthcare advocate, and media creator. He founded Stupid Cancer, hosts the Out of Patients podcast, and leads We The Patients. His work focuses on exposing how the healthcare system fails people when they need it most.
What type of brain cancer did Matthew Zachary have?
Matthew Zachary was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of pediatric brain cancer, at age 21. Treatment ended his path as a concert pianist and forced him into a system he had no reason to understand before that moment. That experience shaped the work he has done for decades since.
What does Matthew Zachary do now?
He builds platforms that give patients a voice and challenge how healthcare operates. That includes media, public speaking, policy awareness, and organizing people around shared experiences with delays and denials in care.
Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary is one of the longest running healthcare podcasts in the United States. It features conversations across healthcare, media, and policy. The show focuses on real patient experiences, system failures, and what happens when care breaks down.
Explore episodes and learn more about the show.
What is the Out of Patients podcast about?
Understanding
American
Healthcare
Why do insurance companies deny care?
nsurance companies deny care to control costs and protect margins. They rely on internal rules, medical guidelines, and approval processes to limit what gets covered. Many denials come down to financial decisions made inside administrative systems, not decisions made at the bedside.
What is prior authorization in plain English?
Prior authorization means your doctor has to ask your insurance company for permission before you can get treatment. That process can delay care, create confusion, and often leads to denials or appeals.
Why does cancer care get delayed?
Cancer care gets delayed because treatment often requires multiple approvals, scheduling across specialists, and coordination between hospitals and insurers. Prior authorization, staffing shortages, and administrative bottlenecks all add time between diagnosis and treatment starts. That delay can happen even when doctors agree on what needs to happen next.
How common are insurance denials?
Insurance denials happen every day across the country. Many patients face at least one denial during treatment. The appeals process exists, but it requires time, knowledge, and persistence that many people do not have. These are not rare edge cases. This is how the system works.
We The Patients
The Book
We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America's Healthcare Nightmare is a new book by Matthew Zachary that explains how the American healthcare system creates delays and denials and what patients can do about it.
The American Healthcare System Isn’t Broken
It was designed this way. We the Patients proposes turning 19 million cancer survivors into a voting bloc and guaranteeing consumer protections for patients.
At long last a proclamation for patient activism that makes the most of a convoluted healthcare system built to confuse and exhaust the very people it claims to serve. Written by 30 year brain cancer survivor, Stupid Cancer founder, and Patients Rights Activist Matthew Zachary.
May 19, 2026, Wiley
Topics Covered
AMERICAN HEALTHCARE ISN’T BROKEN
The increasing harm caused by a healthcare system designed for profits, not patients.
THE AWARENESS TRAP
Disease awareness is so 2000s. What patients need now is consumer protections and targeted activism.
THE PATIENT PROTECTION FOUNDATION
The people, policies, and organizations that set the stage for a patient revolution.
PATIENTS ARE CONSUMERS, TOO
The surprising solution to a 60 year problem marked by denials, delays, and damage.
PATIENTS AS AN UNTAPPED CIVIC BLOC
The political and cultural power of organized patients and caregivers as a force in American healthcare.
Take Control Of Your Healthcare And Understand The Rights That Protect You.
In America, it is hard enough to stay healthy, but it is doubly brutal when your care and your outcome hinge on one question: What insurance do you have
Thirty years after surviving a rare brain tumor and earning, what People magazine coined, the people’s voice in healthcare, Stupid Cancer founder Matthew Zachary learned how to bypass America’s convoluted healthcare system: Don’t fix the system. Rig it in your favor. We the Patients: Understanding, Surviving, and Navigating America’s Healthcare Nightmare shows you how to make the most of a convoluted system that is built to confuse and exhaust the very people it claims to serve. This patient proclamation shows you how to stay truly alive even in the face of illness, make meaning from chaos, and channel anger into advocacy.
It covers:
Zachary’s crash course in the American healthcare system after a life threatening diagnosis at 21 and his mission to make it suck less for the next patient
The rise of patient advocacy and the growing movement to reclaim power from a system built to serve itself
The coming Fifth Healthcare Revolution, driven by a newly organized electorate, and what it means for every American
We the Patients is an unfiltered look at what happens when the healthcare system fails real people. It is a blueprint for fighting back, and a must read for anyone navigating illness, caregiving, or just trying to stay human in a system that makes that harder and harder for us all.
We The Patients:
The Movement
What is We The Patients?
We The Patients is a movement focused on patient rights and accountability in healthcare. It aims to organize people who have experienced delays and denials into a unified voice.
How is We The Patients different from a nonprofit?
We The Patients focuses on building collective power and awareness. It does not rely on traditional fundraising models or institutional messaging. The goal is to represent people directly, not manage programs on their behalf.
Can Anyone Join We The Patients?
Yes. Anyone can join We The Patients. You do not need a diagnosis or a personal story to be part of the community. We welcome patients, caregivers, professionals, and people who simply understand that healthcare in this country needs reform.
Many members choose to share their experiences. Others join to support the effort to organize a single issue voter bloc focused on healthcare. The goal is to bring people together around a shared understanding that change will only happen when we act collectively at scale.
Is We The Patients Political?
We The Patients does not represent any political party, affiliation, or campaign. We organize around a single issue: the right to protection from harm caused by the American healthcare system.
This is a bipartisan effort. It includes people across cancer, rare disease, and the broader healthcare experience, regardless of how they vote. The focus stays on accountability and action from anyone in power, not loyalty to a party or ideology.
Out of Patients?
Join the recurring Out of Patients dispatch from Matthew Zachary covering the latest American healthcare shenanigans. Essays, podcast episodes, media appearances, book updates, and live events delivered with a sardonic Gen X perspective from a patient who simply refuses to shut up.
Get the dispatch