- Sidecar Health — a company that offers insurance plans with robust health care coverage at up to 40% savings — has raised $18 million
Sidecar Health — a company that offers insurance plans with robust health care coverage at up to 40% savings over traditional major medical plans — has announced it launched in Texas. Consumers who enroll in a plan offered by Sidecar Health can customize it for their needs, see any doctor they want without being constrained to a network, and also have full transparency into their health costs so they have no surprise bills at a fraction of the price of a traditional major medical plan.
The company enables this by providing its members with a payment card they use to pay for their care when they get it thereby allowing them to take advantage of discounts for paying upfront. And because the policies offer robust coverage at fixed, published amounts, members know how much will be paid by their plan for any health service. With the Sidecar Health app, members can see how much health care providers in their area charge for services so they can shop around and make the most of their coverage.
“Providing people transparency into costs and coverage and enabling them to choose their own providers puts the consumer in control, which is critical to making health care and health insurance affordable,” said Sidecar Health CEO Patrick Quigley. “Our approach results in a truly affordable option for the millions of people left behind by the traditional model – those who don’t qualify for a government subsidy but can’t afford the cost of traditional plans.”
Sidecar Health’s launch is happening at a time when health care costs continue to skyrocket and millions of people who don’t get health insurance through employer-sponsored plans are foregoing coverage completely. In Texas alone, there are nearly 5 million people who are uninsured, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Since 2016, there are more than 180,000 people have dropped out of ACA plans, many due to costs.
Sidecar Health recently announced it raised $18 million in funding led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm GreatPoint Ventures and Los Angeles-based firm Morpheus Ventures. GreatPoint Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm led by former Oracle President Ray Lane, serial entrepreneur Andrew Perlman, and former Juniper Networks EVP Ashok Krishnamurthi.
“Sidecar Health removes the administrative costs from the health care process and provides true price transparency that consumers can actually use, and that’s something long overdue in this industry,” said Andrew Perlman, managing partner at GreatPoint Ventures. “This product is a great example of taking an otherwise complex process and making it simple, which is why Sidecar Health is such a game-changer in health insurance,” added Joseph Miller of Morpheus Ventures.
And the company’s advisory board includes AVIA co-founder Ted Meisel and Anita Pramoda — who is a board director for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (Los Angeles).
“Having the insurance partners that we do provides us the financial strength and regulatory relationships to scale quickly,” explained Sidecar Health’s co-founder, Veronica Osetinsky.
Sidecar Health issues insurance plans that are underwritten and backed by global insurers. And these insurance companies have ratings of A (Excellent) by AM Best Company.
