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by Nachole Johnson (Author)
America's healthcare system isn't broken-it's working exactly as designed.
As a nurse practitioner, I've spent over 25 years on the wrong side of a system built on racism and perfected by greed. A system that profits more when you stay sick than when you get well. A system that ties your health to your employer, bankrupts you for getting cancer, and fights preventative care because there's no money in keeping you healthy.
On December 4, 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated on a Manhattan sidewalk. Within hours, the internet exploded-not with mourning, but with memes. Thoughts and prayers-DENIED. The nation's response revealed something the healthcare industry hoped we'd never say out loud: we know exactly what they're doing to us, and we're done pretending it's acceptable.
From its origins in segregated hospitals to the assassination of a healthcare CEO, Sick by Design exposes the predatory machine that masquerades as medicine.
This isn't another book blaming individuals for systemic failure.
This is the diagnosis the healthcare industry doesn't want you to have: the cruelty is the point, the design is deliberate, and the people running this system are responsible for what it does.
Americans spend $14,775 per capita on healthcare-nearly double what other developed nations spend-while achieving worse outcomes, shorter lives, and medical bankruptcy rates that don't exist anywhere else.
The system is sick by design. It's time we finally said so.
For healthcare workers exhausted by a system that won't let them practice medicine. For patients bankrupted by insurance they paid for. For everyone who knows the American healthcare system is designed to harm them.
