CrowdHealth – Healthcare
What it is:
CrowdHealth is an online platform that offers a low-cost, tech-enabled alternative to traditional health insurance. Members make a low monthly contribution to be a part of CrowdHealth. Pricing is dynamic and varies by age group. For example (maximum per month):
- Ages 0-5: $225 per month
- Ages 6-54: $175 per month
- Ages 55-64: $325 per month
- Families of 4 to 8: $695 per month
$30 of the monthly contribution goes to the company to cover administrative costs, and the remaining dollars are contributed to voluntarily fund the Crowd’s bills.
At the doctor, the user pays the cash price for their visit. For health events greater than $500, users commit to funding the first $500 and then can submit a funding request to CrowdHealth. For scheduled services, the platform will even contact the doctor ahead of time to negotiate the price. Expenses over $500 can be submitted to the Crowd for funding. The company will also negotiate emergency expenses after they are incurred.
Who Made It?
CrowdHealth was founded in 2021 by Andy Schoonover, who serves as the CEO of the company. Schoonover turned his own negative experience into the inspiration for the CrowdHealth: his daughter had a perforated eardrum and needed tubes in her ears to prevent long term hearing loss. The cost of the entire 15-minute procedure was his responsibility to pay for, despite having a $1,200/month health insurance plan with an $8,000 deductible. He was frustrated that he was paying $1,200 a month and was still responsible for the entire cost of procedures his family needed. He created CrowdHealth to allow customers to pool their money together so that the company can negotiate directly with providers on their behalf, lowering the cost and paying the majority of the cost from the fund. By paying cash prices, patients are getting discounts on procedures that are inflated when they go through the traditional health insurance process. CrowdHealth users see price discounts that are about 30 or 40% off of what health insurance plans pay.
Funding status:
- The company raised $6M of Series A venture funding from undisclosed investors in August 2022.
- The company raised $6.02M of seed funding from Next Coast Ventures and Activate Venture Partners in May 2021.
Why we like it:
- CrowdHealth members benefit from dynamic pricing. They have a maximum contribution level, where $30 goes to the platform and the rest goes into the community fund. The amount per month could be lower, depending on what needs to be paid out to the community each month.
- Negotiating prices with doctors and paying the cash price for care results in lower overall fees for services.
- CrowdHealth estimates that there are roughly 50 to 70 million people who would be good candidates for its service. The platform is a good option for people who must get insurance through healthcare.gov or if they work for small companies or freelance and need to get a private plan.
Did you know?
Medical bills are reported to be the number-one cause of U.S. bankruptcies. One study has claimed that 62.1% of bankruptcies were caused by medical issues. Source