The Journey and Story Behind My Book, “The Healthcare Conversation”
My medical history is not all that exciting. I am young and relatively healthy; healthcare was not something I thought about very often — or at all — growing up. That is, until I turned eighteen and my health insurance, Medi-Cal, completely changed before my eyes.
Suddenly, the whole process of visiting the doctor, receiving my prescriptions, and getting health checkups became incredibly convoluted. I constantly found myself surprised and underprepared for the administrative tasks I abruptly assumed responsibility for. I had to research what types of prescriptions were covered, why some dental or vision services were suddenly out-of-pocket costs, and how to seek out new treatments or referrals to specialists.
What once seemed a guarantee now felt like something I had to fight for. At every turn and corner, I found myself confused and out of the loop about my own healthcare.
When did this process all become so complicated?
The U.S. healthcare system is a perplexing one that no one seems to quite understand, but why is that the case? What makes healthcare — its current status, its policies, its costs — so difficult to understand?
The healthcare industry initially struck me as incredibly daunting, with knowledge about it completely inaccessible to the general public. I felt alone in my healthcare journey, a feeling that all of us have experienced once, twice, or are still actively experiencing now.
In exploring the answer to this question, I unknowingly entered a realm of complexities that the current U.S. healthcare system encompasses. “How does one define healthcare? Who are the influencers of healthcare policy and implementation? And how does one go about learning all this information?” These questions I eventually received answers to spiraled into more questions, creating an endless cycle of perplexity.
The more questions I asked, the more I realized how much more I had to learn, causing me to embark on a journey of discovery and pursuit of knowledge. This book is my attempt to answer those questions and concisely formulate everything I have learned along the way.
One thing is for certain: Nothing in healthcare is certain. Healthcare is full of truths, non-truths, and half-truths coupled with many complex gray areas.
On the journey to understand more about this complicated system, I connected with numerous physicians, healthcare specialists and professionals, managers of innovative companies advocating for change within the system, along with patients and adults in their twenties and thirties. Many of the conclusions and proposals presented in this book are
supplemented by copious amounts of research, published articles, and other credible sources that have reached the same or similar conclusions.
I felt compelled to write a book because this bestowed knowledge was too important to remain unwritten and unseen to the public eye. The curiosity that drove me to understand the healthcare system is the same curiosity that drove the creation of this book, in the hopes that other people could enrich themselves with my discoveries too.
My book aims to simplify the complexities for young Americans in their twenties and thirties, people who are just now being exposed to the idea of healthcare management, and to transform them into smarter consumers and better managers of their health.
I’m targeting this specific age group because the young generation is the most equipped to change the way patients have received healthcare for the last two centuries. This generation is the most technologically advanced one yet, and this advantage is what positions us to change healthcare history, giving us the tools we need to actively manage our healthcare.
However, I do not mean to limit my audience to this target group. My hope is that this book can resonate with all age groups, as I wrote it with the intention of reaching anyone who simply wants to learn more about the system in which they are active participants.
Rich Simmonds, a public figure and professional author, once said, “Don’t look for ideas that will confirm your thinking; rather look for trends that will disrupt your thoughts.”
In this book, we will address insufficiently discussed topics such as the trajectory of our healthcare system, whether healthcare is a right or commodity, ethics and morals obligations that come with business, and many more controversial ideas. For both the readers’ and this discussion’s benefit, this book attempts to bring both sides of the story into perspective, to facilitate and spark a conversation that does both sides justice in the matter.
This book serves as a collection of stories and experiences from real people who have directly experienced the reality of the system. Their words shocked, puzzled, and inspired me, and I hope they can resonate with the same power and magnitude for you as they did for me.
Series 1 Article 1
Enjoyed this article? Over the next weeks, I’m going to be sharing excerpts from my book in this article series. The Healthcare Conversation: Navigating the U.S. Health System is available now on Amazon in both paperback and ebook format. If you want to read more stories like this, please check it out and let me know what you think! To connect, you can reach me here via email at linhdoanvo@gmail.com or on social media at linhnout on Instagram.
