Mark Bertolini, Oscar Health, on dismantling the 80-year-old mistake at the heart of US healthcare Episode

Mark Bertolini, CEO of Oscar Health and former CEO of Aetna, joins Christina Farr to explain why tying healthcare to employment is an outdated post-WWII model, how defined contributions like ICHRA are shifting the industry toward lifetime member value, and why Oscar is building agentic AI tools like Oswell to enable consumer-driven pricing. He also shares raw personal reflections on his son's fight with cancer and his own journey overcoming chronic pain.

SPONSOR: Oscar Health
Oscar Health, Inc. is on a mission to give people greater power over their healthcare by building a more consumer-driven healthcare system. By leveraging technology to place individuals at the center of their healthcare experience, Oscar is transforming the industry into one that is proactive, personal, and transparent. Through its insurance subsidiary, Oscar Insurance, the company provides individual market health plans, innovative digital tools, and support for models such as ICHRA, helping people make more informed decisions with greater choice and coverage tailored to their needs.

Dive into our conversation on Oscar's blog: https://www.hioscar.com/blog/future-o...

LINKS:
Oscar Health: https://www.hioscar.com/
Lucie Health Marketplace: https://www.luciehealth.com/
Chrissy Farr on YouTube:    / @liferswithchristinafarr  
Chrissy Farr on Instagram:   / cfarr  
Subscribe to the Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/
Chrissy’s Book: The Storyteller's Advantage: https://www.chrissyfarr.com/books

FOLLOW:

FOLLOW:
Mark:  / markbertolini  

Chrissy:  / christinafarr  
https://x.com/chrissyfarr

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TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Preview
(00:25) Why employer loyalty doesn't exist anymore
(02:12) How World War II built the system we have
(03:02) Three economic models pushed together
(04:47) The $23,000 question at CNBC
(06:23) Conflating financing and investment
(08:18) The three employer-sponsored insurance markets
(09:57) Pooling every American and giving them their own bucket
(11:09) The churn problem and lifetime value
(14:32) Squaring the morbidity curve
(16:48) What ICHRA is and why Oscar is betting on it
(18:45) Curated pricing, the Lucie Health marketplace
(21:53) What the system refuses to curate
(23:23) Rewriting the hospice program
(26:22) Dignitas and how we talk about dying
(28:25) Why CEOs haven't dropped healthcare yet
(31:03) Machiavelli and the tenure problem
(32:43) Which employers tip first
(34:14) Growing up in Detroit
(34:51) Never count anyone else's money
(37:22) From the Ford assembly line to accounting
(39:05) Why spreadsheets give the illusion of certainty
(40:45) Choosing Oscar
(43:38) Reasons to believe
(46:14) Wrap