Suggested by
Alejandro Gonzalez
over 3 years ago
In 2021, U.S. healthcare spending reached $4.3 trillion.
Out-of-pocket spending stood at more than $406 billion in 2019, a giant market opportunity for fintech startups to tackle.
Healthcare costs in the United States have increased drastically over the past several decades.
Healthcare debt is widely recognized as the No. 1 cause of personal bankruptcies in the US.
Healthcare providers collect only a portion of what patients owe, with estimates ranging from 20% to 55%
Are you interested in addressing this Unmet Need?
Are you interested in addressing this Unmet Need?
Founder @ Suivos Capital
@Pete Zupan @Jeremy Burton It is an interesting space, I’m currently exploring solutions for this problem, the technical part is complex but the idea that I’m trying to build is a fintech-enabled marketplace for medical tourism. Patients can save up between 40% and 80% depending the treatment and country.
CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio
I heard this morning that an interesting inversion has taken place: for many small businesses, the per employee cost of small group plans is now higher than the cost of each employee buying their own individual insurance directly from the market.
This of course goes against the concept of pooled risk and is a weird distortion caused by a bunch of factors.
If this trend continues, many companies and employees may be motivated to change to a model where the company provides pre-tax money to employees to buy their own insurance. There is already a mechanism for this - the Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA).
Founder & CEO @ Sea Change Labs
I 100% agree with your premise but I don't know if fintech is the correct industry to tackle this problem. I think regardless of intent, the end result would look like a digitalized debt collector, competing with other debt collectors to trade healthcare bills, eventually just looking like any other distressed debt trader. That doesn't get rid of the problem.
One thought that comes to mind is some sort of debt consolidation program where you go to debtors and say "pay me $100 and I'll wipe your debt" but then you have to first track down who owns it, rather than the easier way of buying the asset and then figuring out who the debtor is. Unless there's an easier way of mapping that...
Technology and National Security Fellow @ National Security Innovation Network
@Alejandro Gonzalez the fee schedule-vs-patient bill disparity is insane. The info can be a bit tricky to find or outdated when you do, but going down a rabbit hole of searching "fee schedule" (what insurance * decides * a service is worth) for an insurance company and realizing that disparity in charge vs pay can feel like a slap in the face for patients and healthcare providers alike.
But to go back to your idea at large: barring any miracles on Capitol Hill, why hasn't (as far as I know) this been tackled by fintech startups yet? How would those reasons guide a potential solution?
Very important issue. Thanks for highlighting it.