The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care—and How to Fix It

In 2018, health care became the United States’ largest industry, but some would say that its success came at the expense of the American people. Coverage is unaffordable for many, 20 percent of Americans have faced debt collection for medical bills, and care increasingly feels rushed and impersonal. How did we get here, and how can we recover? 

Professor, surgeon, patient advocate and New York Times best-selling author Marty Makary reports on the root causes of the cost crisis—inappropriate care, middlemen and pricing failures—and highlights the innovators that are disrupting the bloated $3.5 trillion health care business. Makary breaks down a complex industry riddled with opaque pricing and clinical and administrative waste and untangles the medical bills that are so confusing most doctors can’t interpret them. In his role as executive director of Improving Wisely, a national physician collaboration to reduce unnecessary medical care and lower health care costs, Makary sees both the devastation medical bills can cause and the vast opportunity to improve the system. He argues that by working together, we can cut through the money games and restore medicine to its mission. 

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Makary photo by Michael B. Lloyd