Ep 268: How to Escape The Health Insurance System with Andy Schoonover

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Go to joincrowdhealth.com and use code TWF for $100 off per member, per month, for your first three months!

Health insurance companies make more money when your premiums go up, and Andy Schoonover built a 36,000-member alternative to prove you don’t need them.

Andy Schoonover founded CrowdHealth, and his path started with a denied claim for his young daughter’s ear procedure. The bill was $8,000 for 15 minutes of work. The insurance company called it “not medically necessary”. He paid it, canceled his plan, and started paying doctors directly, only to find they charged far less than they billed through insurance.

What came next is a healthcare freedom alternative that cuts insurance out of the picture entirely. Andy explains how 80% of the ER bills CrowdHealth sees get coded at the most severe levels, how he personally got charged $5,000 for a saline bag you can buy on Amazon for $8, and what to do with the financial release form they shove at you during an ER visit.

The incentive structure is the real story here. Insurers profit when premiums climb, and hospitals need legislative approval to open in 35 states. The whole system is engineered to resist the people paying into it.

CrowdHealth members fund each other directly for home births, NICU stays, chiropractic care, and cancer treatment abroad. If you’re already outside the mainstream medical model, this is the conversation you’ve been waiting for.

You'll Learn:

[0:00] Introduction [5:44] A death threat and a blacked-out SUV outside Andy’s house [11:56] Certificate of need laws that block new hospitals [23:39] I was rushed into shoulder surgery with no other options offered [32:45] Medical bills as the leading cause of bankruptcy [38:40] Upcoding and how ERs bill everything as life-threatening [47:00] Fighting a medical bill and getting the hospital to back down [52:44] The insurer that scrapped plain-language bills for being too transparent [59:30] What CrowdHealth is and why it’s not insurance [1:06:36] Getting alternative C-word treatments funded by the community [1:17:14] Getting a 20% discount for being metabolically healthy [1:26:56] Why so many members give birth outside the hospital [1:29:13] CrowdHealth’s monthly cost and why there’s no deductible [1:38:34] Building the Amazon for healthcare services

Find more from Andy Schoonover:

CrowdHealth | Webinar | How It Works CrowdIQ | Website

Find more from Alec:

Alec Zeck | Instagram | X The Way Forward | Instagram

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CrowdHealth provides you with a portfolio of tools, seamlessly woven together, that creates a beautiful, low-cost healthcare solution. We help you find awesome doctors, negotiate your bills, and fund those bills through a peer-to-peer funding platform…for less. Visit joincrowdhealth.com and use code TWF for $100 off per member, per month, for your first three months!

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