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The Real-World Impact of Oscar Health: Betting on the Future of Healthcare
Why a Perfect Cup and Handle Pattern Led Me to Discover Healthcare's Most Promising Technology Platform
Dissecting the Markets
August 19, 2025
I couldn't ignore the compelling multi-year cup and handle pattern forming on $OSCR. This textbook technical setup, combined with Oscar Health's recent achievement of full-year profitability, prompted me to dive deeper into researching the stock for my growth portfolio.
Oscar Health Inc.’s stock performance since IPO till August 15, 2025
Cup and Handle Pattern visual chart. Notice how $OSCR ( ▲ 6.46% ) is building out its handle before breaking out higher?
But when evaluating a company's investment potential, it's tempting to get caught up in the maze of premium revenues, medical loss ratios, and regulatory compliance metrics, or even just the chart patterns. While these indicators are undeniably important for healthcare companies, I believe the true insight into Oscar Health's enduring value lies in its tangible impact on one of humanity's most fundamental needs: accessible, affordable healthcare.
Consider a company like Netflix. Despite initial skepticism about streaming economics, it demonstrated profound real-world utility by becoming the primary way many of us consume entertainment, fundamentally transforming how content reaches consumers. Similarly, Shopify's true strength as an investment is rooted in its indispensable role in enabling millions of entrepreneurs to build digital storefronts and reach customers they never could have accessed before.
In the 13 years since Oscar Health's founding, the healthcare industry has been crying out for technological transformation. With U.S. healthcare spending expected to continue growing at rates that outpace general inflation, and individual market enrollment expanding significantly due to trends like Medicaid redeterminations and the rise of Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs), the need for technology-first healthcare solutions has never been more urgent.
Oscar Health has recently garnered significant market attention for recording its first full year of net income profitability in 2024, marking a pivotal transition from growth-focused startup to a sustainable, technology-driven healthcare platform positioned to benefit from this monumental industry evolution.
I believe that, in today's world, member experience and seamless healthcare navigation matter more than ever. The sheer complexity of the healthcare system means consumers are increasingly frustrated with traditional insurance experiences, and it is the well-crafted, thoughtfully-designed health plans and member engagement platforms that will truly stand out. Moreover, as companies are still in the early phases of incorporating AI into healthcare delivery, I anticipate immense innovation in the years to come around personalized care management and predictive health insights that are truly AI-native. Like the foundational shifts to mobile and the cloud, I believe broader adoption of these technologies will be fueled by exceptional member experience design.
Impressions of the Oscar Health App on the iOS app store
Oscar Health has rapidly ascended to become a "full stack technology platform" for healthcare, a pivotal role in an era defined by the digital transformation of health insurance. In a world where virtually every healthcare interaction, from finding a doctor to managing chronic conditions, increasingly happens through digital interfaces, the quality of member experience and care coordination is paramount. Oscar acts as the comprehensive system of record for member health journeys, serving as the technological foundation that bridges the gap between insurance coverage and actual healthcare delivery.
The real-world value Oscar brings is often an invisible force, improving our healthcare experiences. When I effortlessly use telemedicine to consult with a doctor from my home, seamlessly navigate to in-network specialists through personalized recommendations, or receive proactive outreach about preventive care based on my health profile, I am experiencing the direct result of Oscar's member engagement engine. The company's 66 net promoter score—significantly higher than industry averages—reflects how their Care Teams, virtual care platform, and Campaign Builder technology create more intuitive, less frustrating healthcare experiences. Without a platform like Oscar's, the health insurance products I might rely on would likely be clunkier, more bureaucratic, and far less responsive to my individual health needs, diminishing my overall quality of life.
This profound impact on member experience directly fuels a growing trend in the healthcare industry: consumerization and personalization. In a consumer-centric healthcare strategy, the member experience itself becomes the primary driver of retention, satisfaction, and health outcomes. A superior, well-designed health plan with proactive care management naturally attracts and keeps members, reducing reliance on traditional cost-cutting measures that compromise care quality. Oscar, by leveraging its proprietary technology platform to deliver personalized engagement and streamlined healthcare navigation, enables a powerful business model that prioritizes member satisfaction while driving operational efficiency.
A futuristic waiting room at a hospital filled with people. Made with ImageFX.
Taking a step back, investing in Oscar is akin to investing in the very future of how healthcare is experienced and delivered. It's a bet on a company that has fundamentally transformed the health insurance experience for approximately 1.68 million members and continues to expand its technological capabilities. With features like its +Oscar platform, which powers nearly 500,000 additional client lives through Campaign Builder, and its expanding AI applications across claims processing, member personalization, and medical record extraction, Oscar is constantly broadening its ecosystem and ensuring continued relevance in the evolving healthcare landscape.
Oscar estimates its addressable market opportunity encompasses the growing individual health insurance market, which has been significantly expanded by regulatory changes and employer shifts toward ICHRA programs. US health care executives express a favorable outlook for this year and beyond, focusing on growth, profitability, and consumer affordability amid regulatory and technological changes, with the individual market positioned to capture employees whose employers transition from traditional group coverage to defined contribution models.
Oscar's founding vision was to make healthcare accessible and affordable for all through technology. Thirteen years later, the shift toward consumerization and digitization in healthcare, coupled with the company's achievement of both Adjusted EBITDA and net income profitability in 2024, has brought this aspiration significantly closer to reality. This vision continues to drive Oscar's expansion into new markets and its development of innovative insurance products designed to serve diverse communities with varying healthcare needs.
In conclusion, my bullish stance on Oscar Health transcends traditional insurance metrics. It's rooted in the profound and measurable real-world value it delivers by making healthcare more navigable, affordable, and personalized for millions of Americans. By empowering members to take control of their healthcare decisions through superior technology and engagement, Oscar has positioned itself as an indispensable platform in the modern healthcare ecosystem. It's a company that doesn't just process claims and manage risk; it transforms how people interact with and benefit from their health insurance, making it a compelling investment in the future of American healthcare.