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> I hate to sound mean, but I really hope that this business fails. I feel bad saying this, but I'm inclined to agree. Part of the value prop with mid-large bu

> I hate to sound mean, but I really hope that this business fails. I feel bad saying this, but I'm inclined to agree. Part of the value prop with mid-large businesses subsidizing healthcare is the ability to bargain collectively. Individuals can't do this, and just paying that employer contribution to individual subscribers for them to find their own healthcare plan will result in net-negative benefits year over year. The more I think about this, the more this startup concerns me.

dang 7y ago
You guys keep saying you hate saying this and feel bad saying this, yet you've each posted repeatedly and your comments already make up a third of the thread as I write this. That's because reflexive comments on divisive topics (like healthcare) are the easiest to write and tend to fill up the threads early on. Let's not have yet another predictable flamewar about U.S. healthcare. It will just turn into the same flamewar as the other flamewars, which is something we try in general to avoid on this site. Meanwhile there's something specific to discuss about this startup's particular model, regardless of where one stands on the brokenness of the overall system. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20predictable&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- eganist 7y ago
  An argument can be made that the model shouldn't exist in the first place, and part of our comments here are to see if we can steer the founding team towards an alternative that extracts value from a different target, in this case the insurance companies rather than individuals or SBs. In a perfect world, YC wouldn't be hedging in favor of a deteriorating healthcare system in the US by betting on this concept, but that's spilled milk under the bridge, so the goal now is to help point the venture a bit differently. Regrets if you view it as non-productive, but the comments are certainly intended to be (especially my latest one prior to this comment I'm posting now)
  - dang 7y ago
    If you mean the subthread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527801, that's indeed much better.
    - eganist 7y ago
      Appreciate you.
zdragnar 7y ago
Small and medium businesses have very, very little leverage in negotiating health insurance costs. At best, they just switch to a new insurer every year as prices change. In most cases, an option like this is better than nothing, which the founder has already pointed out is a lot of their current base.
- eganist 7y ago
  > Small and medium businesses have very, very little leverage in negotiating health insurance costs. At best, they just switch to a new insurer every year as prices change. Right. And that's why I wish a startup like this would instead be focused on helping s-m businesses bargain for more rather than extract from less.
kevc 7y ago
We absolutely want to use our platform as a base for negotiating lower prices. Currently our customers have 0 negotiating power and can actually get serious price increases if a single person in their group gets sick. For employers in this situation, it's often cheaper to use us and get employees all the same tax savings, but buy on the individual market.
- eganist 7y ago
  Thanks for posting this. I'm looking forward to seeing this service offering as your customer base increases.

dang 7y ago

You guys keep saying you hate saying this and feel bad saying this, yet you've each posted repeatedly and your comments already make up a third of the thread as I write this. That's because reflexive comments on divisive topics (like healthcare) are the easiest to write and tend to fill up the threads early on. Let's not have yet another predictable flamewar about U.S. healthcare. It will just turn into the same flamewar as the other flamewars, which is something we try in general to avoid on this site. Meanwhile there's something specific to discuss about this startup's particular model, regardless of where one stands on the brokenness of the overall system. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20predictable&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

eganist 7y ago
An argument can be made that the model shouldn't exist in the first place, and part of our comments here are to see if we can steer the founding team towards an alternative that extracts value from a different target, in this case the insurance companies rather than individuals or SBs. In a perfect world, YC wouldn't be hedging in favor of a deteriorating healthcare system in the US by betting on this concept, but that's spilled milk under the bridge, so the goal now is to help point the venture a bit differently. Regrets if you view it as non-productive, but the comments are certainly intended to be (especially my latest one prior to this comment I'm posting now)
- dang 7y ago
  If you mean the subthread at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527801, that's indeed much better.
  - eganist 7y ago
    Appreciate you.

zdragnar 7y ago

Small and medium businesses have very, very little leverage in negotiating health insurance costs. At best, they just switch to a new insurer every year as prices change. In most cases, an option like this is better than nothing, which the founder has already pointed out is a lot of their current base.

eganist 7y ago
> Small and medium businesses have very, very little leverage in negotiating health insurance costs. At best, they just switch to a new insurer every year as prices change. Right. And that's why I wish a startup like this would instead be focused on helping s-m businesses bargain for more rather than extract from less.

kevc 7y ago

We absolutely want to use our platform as a base for negotiating lower prices. Currently our customers have 0 negotiating power and can actually get serious price increases if a single person in their group gets sick. For employers in this situation, it's often cheaper to use us and get employees all the same tax savings, but buy on the individual market.

eganist 7y ago
Thanks for posting this. I'm looking forward to seeing this service offering as your customer base increases.