Stupid Cancer, Stupid Insurance, Smart Guests (with Matthew Zachary and Jen Singer)

This week Kristin and I sit down with Matthew Zachary and Jen Singer, two cancer survivors who between them have basically seen every corner of the American healthcare system and lived to write a book about it. Matt founded Stupid Cancer, the organization that essentially created the young adult cancer advocacy space out of nothing back in 2007, and I can personally attest to how much that work has meant to people like me. Jen's journey started with her own aggressive lymphoma diagnosis and years of side effects that followed her long after she was declared "cancer-free." Together they wrote We The Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America's Healthcare Nightmare, and we get into all of it: the history of how we got here, why claim denials are basically a business model, and why so few people ever bother to appeal.

What I loved about this conversation is that it's somehow both infuriating and genuinely funny, which is exactly what Matt and Jen were going for with the book. We talk about the idea of patients organizing as a political voting bloc the way the NRA does, why transparency (or the total lack of it) is doing so much damage, and why blaming doctors is often just a distraction from the real problem upstream. We also cover some lighter stuff, how Matt and Jen actually met, whether writing a book together nearly ended their friendship, and yes, I finally got to answer where the name Jimothy came from. 

Takeaways:

Matt Zachary founded Stupid Cancer in 2007, effectively creating the young adult cancer advocacy space that didn't exist before him.

Only about 2% of insurance claim denials are ever appealed, even though roughly 80% of appeals eventually get overturned.

Jen Singer's aggressive lymphoma went undiagnosed for eight months because her symptoms were dismissed as normal fatigue from being a busy mom.

Matt and Jen argue that healthcare denial and delay isn't a system failure, it's the business model working exactly as designed.

They believe patients need to organize as a political voting bloc, similar to how the NRA operates, to force real legislative change.

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