The Consumer Becomes the Payor: How ICHRA Unlocks a New Era in Healthcare
1Description
In this episode, Julie Yoo and Jay Rughani are joined by Thatch cofounders Chris Ellis and Adam Stevenson to explore why ICHRA—a more recent policy innovation—might quietly revolutionize employer-sponsored health benefits. Unpacking the surprising history of how U.S. healthcare became entangled with employment, they make the case for a defined-contribution future that mirrors the rise of the 401(k) and HSA. Tailored especially for today’s distributed and fast-moving workforce, ICHRA allows employers to offer tax-free health dollars employees can spend how—and where—they choose.
For healthcare entrepreneurs, the conversation provides a blueprint for navigating a rapidly shifting payer landscape, including insight into how fintech infrastructure, policy tailwinds, and carrier ecosystem integrations unlock market readiness.
This episode was originally published in October of 2024. The conversation remains relevant today.
United States
Fun podcast! Getting new downloads. Thanks. Still not sure where ICHRA can apply to freedom of choice in healthcare under the oppressive 0bamacare regime of one size fits all, tax but not a tax, deemed law of the land, most expensive designed to fail, with its variables consisting only of deductables, monthly fees, or total out of pocket expense, disregarding the types of care for desired coverage, and the level of services to be insured from major to minor. #FreedomOfChoiceInWomensHealthcare
@3:45 Close, but wasn't the rise of health insurance tied to employment (mostly catastrophic coverage at that time) designed to skirt FDR's price and wage controls? Nice deflection to a captured Congress though and ditto on the created tax exemption carve outs for such plans.
Thanks on the evergreen alert!