America’s broken health system is a possibility, says Cityblock CEO

For the primary time in many years, persons are having real conversations about health care, “from the bottom up,” says Dr. Toyin Ajayi. That has her feeling optimistic.

“We’re in a moment where health and health care — and what it means to be healthy — is the topic of a national discussion,” the co-founder and chief executive officer of Cityblock Health told CNBC Senior Media & Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin in the newest episode of the “CNBC Changemakers and Power Players” podcast.

“I’ve never seen that,” Ajayi said.

Amid cuts in federal funding for scientific research, the introduction of polarizing policies under President Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and a charged political debate over how the U.S. funds health care that precipitated the longest U.S. government shutdown on record, this kind of optimism may appear counter-intuitive.

But Ajayi says the interest and a focus the U.S. health-care system is getting now is precisely what is required to spur change. “Health care is so unaffordable in the USA, inexplicably unaffordable,” Ajayi said.

“We’re not healthier in consequence of all of the spending we’re making. We as a rustic spend more per capita on health care than every other developed country, and we now have among the worst health outcomes. Doctors and nurses are burned out. They’re leaving the career in droves. We’re having a tough time attracting people to do really amazing work, like being primary care doctors in rural areas. … And we’re aging, and the needs are greater. … the established order wasn’t working. Everybody’s form of mad about it,” she said.

Ajayi was named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list.

The “Make America Healthy Again” movement is one example of a recent public discussion that Ajayi sees as a positive, “whether or not I agree with certain people’s positions,” she said.

“There are individuals who discover as being a part of a movement around health. That is incredible,” she said. “Who can I elect who’s more prone to help me live a healthy life and help my children live a healthy life? … For the primary time, actually within the last couple of many years, persons are having real conversations, not within the halls of Congress, not within the state houses, but actually on the bottom about what health means,” she said. 

Cityblock provides health services to individuals across clinical, behavioral health, and social needs, serving patients who’re on Medicaid or are dually eligible for each Medicare and Medicaid. The corporate, which has greater than 100,000 members and partners across greater than 10 states, employs community medical examiners who conduct hyper-local, in-home assessments and coordinate care, and in addition connects patients to social services, like food banks and transportation.

With trust within the U.S. health-care system “at an all time low,” in keeping with Ajayi, a very powerful thing Cityblock is targeted on is earning and retaining patient trust, she said.

It is a message she shares with all of her investors, shareholders and teams. “Medicine for thus long form of operated on a hierarchy — it was us and it was them,” said Ajayi, who during her education as a medical student and profession as a medical doctor has seen the inner workings of underfunded, under-equipped pediatric care units in Sierra Leone and high-tech hospitals in Boston. “We had the white coats and all the information and data, all of the years of coaching, they usually were our subject… That does not work and I believe that we now have an actual opportunity in health care and in public health to regain trust by actually meeting people where they’re,” she said.

Which means going into people’s homes, connecting with them on their smartphones or of their social media feeds. “Wherever persons are we have to go there and we have to point out up using language that’s relatable to them and intelligible to them,” Ajayi said.

She is bullish on the potential of AI to do exactly that, and to assist Cityblock make care much more accessible, trustworthy and comprehensible. The corporate is investing in AI technology with the aim of ensuring advantages reach patients on government health plans, not only the rich, “in order that we are able to look back 10 years from now and say, you understand what, we as a society developed AI tools that truly make the world and lives higher for individuals who did not have a seat on the table and would not otherwise have been built for,” she said.

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