America does not lack compassion or empathy, but it does lack a healthcare system built to protect those qualities. Somewhere along the way, the relationship between doctor and patient got buried under layers of billing codes and insurance rules.
Gregory Gallivan’s revolutionary book, “Health Care: Compassion In Action”, takes direct aim at that unfortunate reality. It offers an actionable framework that treats healthcare like a moral responsibility, a workforce challenge, and an economic engine.
Gallivan’s plan is intentionally practical. In fact, he demonstrates in the book how it can be approved in just 24 hours and implemented in two years.
The inspiration behind Greg Gallivan’s actionable framework for fixing the American healthcare system
Gallivan arrived at his plan from a lifetime of observation. Growing up in a household of medical professionals, he watched his parents put in long hours and do their utmost to provide care while the system crashed around them.
Gallivan later enrolled in pre-medical school studies. Several years later came a pivotal moment. His father, a highly respected thoracic surgeon, suddenly advised him to stop his pre-med studies and leave the field entirely. Despite his father once having taken Gallivan on rounds as a budding apprentice, he was suddenly admitting that the system had become something he could no longer recommend as a career path.
And then came the gut punch that set Gallivan in motion. As Gallivan dropped a close friend’s three-year-old son off at daycare, the little boy chattered about his dreams, but Gallivan’s heart broke. He imagined the world that child would inherit, and the world the child’s mother, a registered nurse, already faced.
Urgency sharpened even further one morning while driving for Uber, when he picked up the CEO of a large healthcare corporation, who was headed to Logan Airport. During the ride, Gallivan was stunned to hear that the Affordable Care Act had no reasonable replacement plan in the wings. The federal subsidies already came to an end on January 1, 2026.
Months later, another high-ranking executive riding in Gallivan’s car said the same. But by this time, Gallivan had built his own replacement plan.
When he presented the framework and asked the executive whether it would work, Gallivan was not brushed off. Instead, she stayed in a raging rainstorm, waving off security to continue the conversation through the passenger window. Her message was urgent. “You have to write this. You need to write this.”
Step 1: Reimagine healthcare with an à la carte insurance model
Gallivan’s first move is to change the way insurance functions. Instead of forcing families into a few rigid plans that rarely fit their real needs, he proposes an à la carte insurance model.
A young couple does not need the same coverage structure as a family with a child who has asthma. Similarly, a household caring for an aging parent has very different needs than a single parent juggling multiple jobs. Gallivan believes that healthcare coverage should be adaptable.
By creating modifiable family programs, Gallivan argues the system can restore the doctor-patient relationship as the center of care.
“Once the insurance industry stops taking on the role of gatekeeper, doctors can focus on medicine again,” he says. “The entire system becomes less adversarial.”
Step 2: Explore how education reform can expand the healthcare workforce
America desperately needs more healthcare workers. Gallivan’s second step tackles this workforce crisis head-on.
His approach starts earlier than most proposals, with a 4th-grade initiative program designed to encourage the brightest and most altruistic children to consider healthcare careers. The goal is not to pressure them into a career in healthcare, but to instead build a national culture that makes caregiving professions respected and achievable.
Gallivan frames this as an equality issue.
“Instead of the kids with the biggest minds and hearts entering the healthcare system, we see medical schools filled with the students whose parents have the biggest bankrolls. Attending medical school and becoming a doctor is an exceptionally expensive endeavor,” he says. “When children receive early encouragement and opportunity, the pipeline into healthcare will become broader.”
Technology is a major accelerant in this second step. According to Gallivan, the integration of artificial intelligence will streamline and individualize each child’s learning. As students make the best use of each year of education, they may even be able to enter college with many of their undergraduate degree prerequisites already completed.
Step 3: Demonstrate how financial reform will benefit the healthcare system
Gallivan’s third step connects household finances and healthcare stability. His plan argues that lowering costs while increasing the purchasing power of the dollar will reduce the number of people forced onto state and federal aid programs. When working families can afford day-to-day expenses, they will finally be able to think more often about their preventive care needs, enabling them to avoid many of the expensive crises that overwhelm hospital and patient budgets alike.
That shift would then create the second-order benefit of increased tax revenue for states and the federal government. A healthier middle class can help fund a healthier healthcare system.
“Health Care: Compassion In Action” proposes common-sense actions that have the power to work across political lines. It is a simple solution with an engaging explanation that takes readers through decades of history and into an intriguing future.
“Our best days are ahead of us,” Gallivan says. “We need to replace theory with common sense actions that work for everyone, not just some.”