Health insurance in the US is broken. That much seems to be regarded as a universal truth. Oscar Health co-founder and CEO Mario Schlosser acknowledged that the system is need of some major fixes this afternoon during a panel at Disrupt New York. And the country, he added, certainly has a ways to go in order to address those key shortcomings.
Asked whether the United States has a moral obligation to insure its citizens, Schlosser answered, matter of factly, “I think so.” He took a moment to explain enthusiastically that, as a German native, he believes that U.S. is still the “best country on Earth,” but added, “I think we have an obligation to make sure people are covered against healthcare costs. A third of all personal bankruptcies until about 2014 or so were related to health insurance. The uninsured rates were shaved off by a couple of points when we came in.”
As far as what the government is doing to address those issues, Schlosser told the crowd that he still believes there’s a long way to go. The executive has previously addressed concerns with Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Shortly after the election, Schlosser penned a post about the ACA, which expressed something of a mixed rating of a system aimed at addressing some of health care’s biggest problems.
“While the ACA has significant flaws, we believe the majority of this pain is a result of the preexisting faults of our healthcare system,” Schlosser wrote back in November. The executive seems similar flaws in Trumpcare – or at the very least, the version of the American Health Care Act that recently pushed through the House of Representatives.
“I think the bill as it stands right now has a lot of flaws and needs to be fixed,” Schlosser told the crowd at today’s event. “That’s what the Senate already said. They’re now going through and looking at what they think the individual markets should look like. It’s extremely important – and I think the Senate and the House get this – that there be a viable individual market. The individual market is now serving about 20 million people. And those people are getting health insurance often for the first point in their lives. There’s a viable individual market design in that bill that I think can happen, but needs to get built out.”
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Among Ocar’s personal fallout from current government systems is the fact that the company is owed $200 million, according to a statement Schlosser made to the press back in March. Oscar, incidentally, was cofounded by Josh Kushner, brother of Trump administration jack of all trades, Jared — though Schlosser seemed to brush aside concerns surrounding potential optics should the company get paid back during the current administration’s term.