Why Patients Need Political Power, Not Just Awareness with Matthew Zachary, CEO and Co-Founder of We The Patients

Patients are the largest unorganized constituency in American healthcare—and Matthew Zachary believes that needs to change. In this episode, I speak with Matthew Zachary, CEO and Co-Founder of We The Patients, brain cancer survivor, author of the book: We The Patients, founder of Stupid Cancer, and host of Out of Patients. Matthew shares why traditional advocacy built around awareness and moral arguments has not been enough to change healthcare policy. He explains his vision for organizing patients around shared economic interests, using the 3.5% rule as a framework for building real civic power. We also discuss how insurance barriers, administrative burden, medical debt, and delayed access to prevention continue to harm patients, and why aligning patient protections with economic incentives could create meaningful reform. Tune in to learn why an organized patient constituency could become one of the most powerful forces in healthcare! Resources: Connect with and follow Matthew Zachary on LinkedIn. Visit Matthew Zachary’s website. Get a copy of We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America’s Healthcare Nightmare. Listen to Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary. Learn more about Stupid Cancer. Read Matthew’s The Hill op-ed on patients sharing a civic identity. Explore Erica Chenoweth’s research on the 3.5% rule. Learn more about Lucid Diagnostics and the EsoGuard test.