Decent June 2019 update

Decent offers affordable health insurance for self-employed people.

Headlines

• Added HCA (the largest hospital system in the world) to our network.
• Hired Elijio Salas, former Associate Commissioner of the Texas Department of Insurance, as our Austin-based Broker Relations Lead.
• Launched a bronze plan, with the lowest bronze premiums in Austin for nonsmokers age 18 to 40. It’s preferred 4-to-1 in surveys vs. competition.
• Partnered with Vericred to distribute our plans via thousands of brokers.Partnered with Catch (YC W19) to serve self-employed people. Kristen from Catch thinks Decent could be a “billion dollar company.”
• We’re getting lots of investment interest and will fundraise after summer.

Details below.

Added HCA (the largest hospital system in the world) to our network.HCA ($47B 2018 revenue) has 185 hospitals and thousands of affiliated facilities and clinicians nationwide, including Austin’s St. David’s and The Austin Diagnostic Clinic. Hospitals are the “anchor tenants” of health plans. This partnership will help us serve Austin members and expand quickly.

Hired Elijio Salas, former Associate Commissioner of the Texas Department of Insurance, as our Austin-based Broker Relations Lead.Elijio was a top broker before leading TDI’s Financial Licensing Division. He’s a sharp, kind, and connected lifetime Austinite. We’re delighted to make him our first Austin hire.

Launched a bronze plan, with the lowest bronze premiums in Austin for nonsmokers age 18 to 40. It’s preferred 4-to-1 in surveys vs. competition.

Partnered with Vericred to distribute our plans via thousands of brokers. Vericred offers a data translation layer between carriers and insurtech companies — think Plaid for health plan data. Their universal API will push our plan data to top online brokers and benefits platforms like BenefitMall, Gusto, Kind, GoCo and Stride — unlocking one-to-many distribution to help us grow fast during open enrollment and beyond.

Partnered with Catch (YC W19) to serve self-employed people. Kristen from Catch thinks Decent could be a “billion dollar company.” Catch’s personal benefits platform serves the 80MM people who don’t have access to employer benefits. Cofounder Kristen Tyrrell gave us a surprise shout out on the Forward Thinking Founders podcast — listen here at 21:09. Excerpts:

“What company most people don’t know of do you think is going to be really big in a decade?”KT: “I could list companies that went through YCombinator with us, but all of us are still pretty early … Decent. Decent.com. Health insurance is just too freaking expensive. We’re at the mercy of these big companies that have just terrible plans, high deductibles, really high costs. At the end of the day, we need better and cheaper insurance products. So Decent is taking a look at how do you rethink what that plan is? Can we make it more affordable? Can people pay less and have better care? It’s really hard, but there’s so much room for good, and obviously if they can crack that nut they’ll be a billion dollar company.”

We’re getting lots of investment interest and will fundraise after summer. We are proud of the progress we’ve made in a year. Huge thanks to the investors who have supported us so far.

How you can help 🙏

• New HRA rules will let employers make tax-advantaged contributions toward independent contractors’ (1099s) premiums, making our plans an even better choice for large blocks of skilled 1099s. Our broker partners can’t wait to sell Decent into this market, and I want to make sure we give them exactly what they need. If you know leaders of businesses that employ many skilled 1099s, I’d love to talk with them. 🙏
• We are considering raising debt in conjunction with our Series A to help cover regulatory capital reserves. If you have advice or connections in debt finance for insurance, let me know. 🙏
• Listen to Kristen Tyrrell from Catch’s full 3 minute quote on Decent at 21:09 here, and then retweet this. 🙏