Our healthcare system is broken.
It's time to fix it by eliminating the middleman—insurance companies. It's time for insurance-free healthcare.
Our big healthcare problem.
Health insurance is in the driver’s seat of your health—defining what care should cost, what is covered, and what treatments you should be allowed to get.
Even worse, they have no incentive to focus on your long-term health. Need more proof? Look at the numbers.
PROBLEM #1
Health insurance is a short-term product. Prevention is a long-term investment.
On average, you only stay on the same health plan for 4 years, so insurers have zero incentive to pay for things that will improve your health decades from now… you’ll be someone else's problem by then.
To insurers, prevention is a cost with no financial payoff.
4
YEARS
HEALTHCARE SPENDING (%GDP)
DATA: OECD HEALTH STATISTICS 2019
PROBLEM #2
Highest costs, worst outcomes.
20% of your paycheck goes to health care, yet the U.S. has some of the worst health outcomes.
In fact, the U.S. spends 2X as much on health care compared to other developed countries, but ranks last on health care outcomes — with the lowest life expectancy, highest suicide rates, highest chronic disease burden, highest obesity rates, and the highest rate of preventable mortality.
3,4
PROBLEM #3
Rising costs, declining life.
Your health insurance makes you pay more and more each year, but American life expectancy has been declining.
DATA: WORLD BANK, LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH, TOTAL YEARS (UNITED STATES). KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION, 2020 EMPLOYER HEALTH BENEFITS SURVEY
LIFE EXPECTANCY & DEDUCTIBLES
2X
PROBLEM #4
Wasting your time and money.
For every minute a doctor spends with you, they spend an additional two minutes on paperwork.
This translates to less time with your doctor, decreased quality of care, and increased costs.
8
9
Forward is building insurance-free healthcare - it's high-quality healthcare built with the right incentives, focused on you and your long-term health.
Works for you, not your insurance company.
You and your doctor are in control, not your insurer. Insurance-free healthcare wants to make you healthier, not an insurance CEO richer. It’s focused on results, not billing codes.
Is there early, not late.
Today, 1 in 3 people die early from preventable health causes. Insurance-free healthcare focuses on preventing issues before they happen, not reacting once it’s too late. It keeps you out of the hospital, not in it.
Lowers prices, doesn't raise them.
Traditional healthcare is expensive because it requires human labor. By rebuilding healthcare as a technology product, insurance-free healthcare continuously lowers costs, while improving quality of care and health outcomes.
Built for the next century, not the last.
Insurance-free healthcare builds technology to empower doctors, not restrict them. It utilizes data-driven technology to understand your health every minute, not just once a year in the exam room.
WE ARE NOT ALONE
Insurance-free healthcare is all around us
Insurance-free healthcare is not exclusionary. In order to achieve a truly insurance-free world, many companies need to be involved and many already are.
RO
Online pharmacy
23ANDME
Genetic insights + testing
WHOOP
Wearable fitness tracker
NOOM
Weight management coaching
OURA
Personal sleep doctor
LASIK MD
Robotic eye surgery
Stay informed.
References
1. U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020) Employee Tenure in 2020.
2. Carman, K., Liu, J., & White, C. (2020). Accounting for the burden and redistribution of health care costs: Who Uses care and who pays for it. Health Services Research, (55)2. 224–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13258
3. Tikkanen, R., & Abrams, M. (2020). Tikkanen, Roosa & Abrams, Melinda. (2020). U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2019: Higher Spending, Worse Outcomes? Commonwealth Fund. https://doi.org/10.26099/7avy-fc29
4. Schneider, E., Shah, A., Doty, M., Tikkanen, R., Fields, K., & Williams, R. et al. (2021) Mirror, Mirror 2021 — Reflecting Poorly: Health Care in the U.S. Compared to Other High-Income Countries. Commonwealth Fund. https://doi.org/10.26099/01dv-h208
5. CDC, National Center for Health Statistics. (2021). Life Expectancy in the U.S. Declined a Year and Half in 2020. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
6. World Bank, World Development Indicators. Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - United States.
7. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2020). 2020 Employer Health Benefits Survey.
8. Sinsky, C., et all. (2016). Allocation of physician time in ambulatory practice: A Time and motion study in 4 specialties. Annals of Internal Medicine, 165(11), 753-760. https://doi.org/10.7326/m16-0961
9. Erickson, S., Rockwern, B., Koltox, M., & McLean, R. (2017). Putting Patients First by Reducing Administrative Tasks in Health Care: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 659-661. https://doi.org/10.7326/M16-2697