Oscar Health launched a new consumer health marketplace on April 20 designed to connect consumers and brokers to “every major” individual health insurance plan as well as supplemental and ancillary coverage beyond the plans it sells. Oscar, which is best known for selling individual health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, said its Lucie Health Marketplace includes an “artificial-intelligence fueled platform” that can serve “millions of entrepreneurs, full- and part-time employees, gig workers, and early retirees.”

Oscar Health

Oscar Health Monday launched a new consumer health marketplace designed to connect consumers and brokers to “every major” individual health insurance plan as well as supplemental and ancillary coverage beyond the plans it sells.

Oscar, which is best known for selling individual health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, said its Lucie Health Marketplace includes an “artificial-intelligence fueled platform” that can serve “millions of entrepreneurs, full- and part-time employees, gig workers, and early retirees.”

As healthcare costs rise and millions of Americans are losing coverage after Congress and Trump administration didn’t renew enhanced Obamacare subsidies, Oscar sees a huge and growing market for those who don’t have access to employer coverage or government-sponsored plans like Medicare for older adults or Medicaid for lower-income Americans. Oscar also sees an expanding market of states that are offering tax credits to businesses that fund healthcare accounts for employees to buy plans on the individual market.

Unlike the government-run marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act, where individuals can buy Obamacare coverage from a variety of carriers including Oscar, the Lucie Health Marketplace “embeds a recommendation engine” that helps evaluate choices. In particular, Oscar executives say Lucie evaluates hundreds of medical, supplemental and ancillary plan options in hopes of providing an easier way to compare prices and benefit packages because it “instantly quotes, enrolls, and renews products across carriers,” the company said in a statement.

“Instead of being forced into one of three rigid employer plans, you build your own custom bundle of affordable products for better financial protection,” Oscar Health Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said. “Your health plan. Your pharmacy coverage. Your dental plan. You can shop with confidence and buy what fits your life.”

Oscar executives said consumers would be able to choose from some of the biggest names in the individual market including UnitedHealth Group’s UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Centene’s Ambetter plans and an array of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. For supplemental coverage, companies like Aflac, Golden Rule, Allstate Health Solutions and others would be offered on the Lucie marketplace. “We are also working with other major affinity groups, like USAA, to give their populations access to lower cost medical products that they can bundle with dental, vision, accident, hospital care, and more,” the company said in a statement.

"When shopping for healthcare becomes as easy as booking a hotel, we can eliminate decades of inefficiency,” Bertolini said.

“If you want a value medical plan with extra hospital coverage, you choose that,” he added. “If you want robust coverage for a health condition, you bundle multiple services in one plan. We are putting consumers in control so they can vote where they find value. Lucie will make healthcare work like every modern market."