Rochester, is the only CO-OP in New York and although a separate entity from Freelancers, uses the same model, said Health Republic chief executive Debra Friedman. "We're happy to provide alternative to traditional insurance models," she said. It's the only insurance company in the exchange that is member owned. Because the majority of board members will be health plan members, the company will have fewer administrative costs. "Because we don't have public profit margins, members profit from lower premium prices," Friedman said. "We're able to be highly effective and efficient." Changing consumers' experience with their health plan is the holy grail of Oscar's three co-founders. Joshua Kushner, 28, a Harvard College and Harvard Business School graduate and founder of a venture capital investment company, said he decided to start a health insurance company when he opened up his insurance bill "and I had no idea what it meant." What he also found perplexing, he said, was the typical relationship of the health insurer with the customer. "They do everything to acquire customers and then do everything to avoid dealing with them," he said. "What if you took that relationship that is broken and made it simple and transparent?" Like 'a doctor in the family' That is the "grand vision" that is driving Kushner and two friends from Harvard Business School: Kevin Nazemi, 32, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Kennedy School and a former director at Microsoft, and Mario Schlosser, 35, a graduate of Stanford University and a former senior investment associate at a hedge fund. The company is housed in a sixth-floor loft in SoHo and employs 35. The founders chose the name Oscar because they wanted to make the company seem like a person. "It's like having a doctor in the family," Nazemi said. In fact, an Oscar customer -- Oscar will operate in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and Rockland counties - will be able to call a number and get a personal call back within 20 minutes from a doctor, who can prescribe medicine if necessary, the founders said. Customers will also get free, unlimited "telemedicine" visits, free wellness checkups and no-cost generic prescriptions. Whether the co-founders will be able to keep something as dauntingly complex as health care simple and affordable and make a profit is unclear. But as Kushner remarked: "Young people want to work on big problems."
PROVIDERS ON INSURANCE EXCHANGE Here's a list of the health insurers on New York's health benefit exchange, to begin Oct. 1: INDIVIDUAL MARKETPLACE -- Affinity Health Plan -- Empire BlueCross BlueShield -- Fidelis Care -- Health Republic -- Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (EmblemHealth) -- Healthfirst New York (being offered in Nassau County only) -- North Shore-LIJ CareConnect -- Oscar Insurance -- United Healthcare SMALL-BUSINESS MARKETPLACE -- Health Republic -- North Shore-LIJ CareConnect -- United Healthcare
Â