Healthcare Startup Oscar Raises $80 Million | Hacker News Reader

Healthcare Startup Oscar Raises $80 Million

forbes.com

51 pointszt16 comments

I was really excited about this when I was shopping for insurance in April -- unfortunately they offer the same quality plans as the NY exchange. Not a single doctor from the 5-6 I've used in the past few years accepts any of their plans (or any of the exchange plans, for that matter).

Oscar resells MagnaCare insurance, and they're not even the only ones on the NY exchange to do it. I wish they'd actually do something different in the insurance market, but Oscar is more of the same.

I think you're confusing an insurance company and a provider network. Magnacare is a provider network, not an insurance company.

> $80 million Series A round...Oscar had previously raised $75 million in seed funding

Is that what counts as a seed round these days?!

depends on founders. Anything less than such numbers these guys would probably self-financed using their lunch money:

>Josh Kushner—whose VC fund has backed hot start ups like Spotify, Nasty Gal, ResearchGate, Codecademy, Warby Parker and Instagram—[...cut...]. With the goal of hacking Obamacare, Kushner built Oscar in-house with cofounders Kevin Nazemi (a former director at Microsoft’s health care division) and Mario Schlosser (a data junkie who worked previously at Bridgewater Associates and McKinsey & Company ).

There is a lot of hate in this thread. I personally use Oscar, and while I have not had to use their plan yet, my experience with their support staff, and website have been the best I have had with any insurance provider/company/network.

They were responsive, helpful, and offer an affordable product with two things I really liked about their plan:

1) Free online consultations. I have vertigo and many times when I am sick, leaving the home to go to the doctor is hard due to my vertigo being magnified by other illnesses. This is a big convenience if I need it.

2) 4 free checkups a year with lab work through Quest paid included.

For $218/mo I am a happy customer.

In case you missed it there was an article here yesterday describing their approach to simplicity through design:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7738831

Having not heard of Oscar before, I was hoping this was related to the open source OSCAR EMR system.

Having said that, I'm happy to see any form of investment in health care startups.

Never heard about them, I tried their website: https://www.hioscar.com/ and I get a 403

These guys are insiders, with insider access to capital. Don't go looking for a great breakout product. You won't find it. The primary value they bring is their access to the elite networks and to money.

The $80 Million injection is a bet on this guy's network. Not on his product instincts. I'm sure he will buy the product people he needs.

(EDIT: I didn't know that in NYS since 1992 there was no age rating! This has nothing to do with ACA.)

It's cute how they quote without asking age; that way the quoted price (which seems to be for a 26 year old, if not younger) looks small; then they get your phone number.

It's what, 4x that for a 64 year old who smokes?

Seems like an example that no matter how clear the rules are, insurers will lie.

"Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination in health care programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sex stereotypes, gender identity, age, or disability."

That is why they don't ask your gender, national origin, race, age, etc. It's irrelevant to the price.

(EDIT: wow, i didn't know that either about NYS! thanks for finding that and sharing )

(EDIT: WOW. It appears New York State, since 1992(!!!), has not allowed age rating. Unlike the other states.)

ACA plans are "age rated" (although only 3:1 from 26 to 64, unlike the true actuarial rate which is probably 6:1). It's not "discrimination" under the law. This effectively means young people subsidize old people. (a flat rate without age would be even more extreme, which would make plans essentially irrational for healthy <40 year olds)

NYS or NYC might be different; I know NY had some weird pre-ACA rules.

You used to be able to use gender (which was pretty universal; males were about 20-30% less than females even for plans which excluded childbirth); you can still use smoking. You can do community rating under certain terms too, although it's fairly restricted, and generally just means some insurers don't issue in some parts of states.

IIRC health history was used mainly as buckets; the "best" individual plans required an essentially clean health history, or would exclude pre-existing conditions entirely. Various legal hacks over the past ~10y created various forms of guaranteed issue.

http://ahip.org/Issues/Age-Rating.aspx has some info.

If I understood the health insurance industry, I would LOVE to disrupt it. I loathe the current players so much its not even funny.

To summarize the situation for those curious:

1) Oscar is a UX play on top of health insurance (they license a provider network, etc). 2) Building an insurance company is extremely difficult. 3) Successful insurance companies require huge capitalization, and are worth a lot of money. 3) They are not failing.

... Thus, lots of cash is needed.

> "An attempt to bring the efficiency, transparency and design of consumer Internet companies to the ugly, byzantine world of health insurance."

https://www.hioscar.com/

403 Forbidden - not quite there yet....

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