The Great American Healthcare Heist: With Whistleblower Chris Deacon | Broken Healthcare Podcast #85

America doesn’t have a healthcare problem.

It has a healthcare business problem — and we’re all trapped inside it.

In this powerful episode of Broken Healthcare, host Ray Kober sits down with Chris Deacon — attorney, healthcare policy expert, former Director of State Health Benefits for New Jersey, and author of The Great American Healthcare Heist — to expose how America’s healthcare system became a $5 trillion machine that patients, employers, and taxpayers can’t escape.

Chris isn’t a theorist.

She ran healthcare for nearly 800,000 lives and managed a $6–7 billion annual healthcare budget inside government.

What she discovered changed everything.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

- Why Americans are paying $17,000–$50,000 per family per year and still can’t afford care

- How insurers, PBMs, and hospitals operate as vertically integrated monopolies

- Why “nonprofit” hospitals behave like Wall Street corporations — without paying taxes

- How consolidation destroyed community hospitals and accountability

- Why politicians of both parties are trapped by lobbying and reelection incentives

- How young government staffers are “educated” by industry lobbyists

- Why $1.5 BILLION in savings was realistically achievable — without cutting benefits

- How employers blindly write healthcare checks they’d never approve anywhere else

- Why Americans are handed a $50,000 system with no instruction manual

- How the healthcare system itself can become dangerous if navigated incorrectly

Chris delivers one of the most important analogies in healthcare today:

“We hand people a $50,000 Volvo and say ‘good luck’ — no driving lessons, no instruction manual — and then blame them when it goes wrong.”

This conversation isn’t partisan.

It’s not theoretical.

And it’s not about selling you anything.

It’s about education, accountability, and taking control of a system that quietly drains families, employers, and communities.

If you’ve ever:

1- Been afraid to seek care because of cost

2- Opened a medical bill and thought “this can’t be real”

3- Managed employee benefits and felt completely boxed in

4 - Wondered why healthcare feels impossible to fix

This episode will change how you see everything.

Watch. Share. And start asking better questions.

ABOUT CHRIS DEACON

Chris Deacon is an attorney, healthcare policy expert, former Director of State Health Benefits for New Jersey, national speaker, whistleblower, and featured voice in the documentary It’s Not Personal, It’s Just Healthcare. She oversaw healthcare for nearly 800,000 public employees and dependents and managed one of the largest state healthcare budgets in the country.

She now focuses on education, policy consulting, and public advocacy to help employers, policymakers, and the public understand how the system actually works — and how it can be improved.

PURCHASE HER BOOK

The Great American Healthcare Heist by Chris Deacon

Available at:

Amazon

Major online book retailers

Independent bookstores (by request)

(Search: The Great American Healthcare Heist – Chris Deacon)

HOW TO CONTACT CHRIS DEACON

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cdeaconc/

Active on LinkedIn with regular healthcare insights and commentary

Long-form writing available via Substack: https://substack.com/@chrisdeaconahealthcareheist

Open to messages, dialogue, and education-focused engagement

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Healthcare doesn’t change without informed pressure — and that starts here.

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