The Questionable Characters Behind the Kushner-Linked Insurance Giant Oscar
Health
Oscar Health, a tech-based telehealth insurance mishmash co-founded by
Joshua Kushner is about to go public with a massive IPO underwritten by the
gods of Wall Street and backed by Silicon Valley titans.
Mint Press News
by Raul Diego
February 10th, 2021
By Raul Diego
Why are the founders of the largest gaming company in Latin America building
a telehealth giant in the United States? The answer to this question will
not be readily apparent for another few years when the links between big
business and the gamified marketplace are clear for everyone to see. In the
meantime, Oscar Health, a health insurance start-up co-founded by Jared
Kushners brother and a German-born computer scientist, filed for an initial
public offering last week in what is expected to be one of the largest IPO
hauls in history, projected to rake in almost $34 billion.
The questionable background of the companys founders and their corrupt
entanglements with Washingtons highest levels of power raises red flags as
Oscar Health is handed access to Americans most sensitive medical and
financial data.
That data will be collected through Oscars mobile app and online platform,
which ostensibly allows users to make medical appointments, virtual doctor
visits, and prescription drug refills among other things. With 529,000
current subscribers across more than a dozen markets, the tech-based health
insurance broker is on route to becoming a powerhouse in the fast-growing
telemedicine sector.
The tech-enabled health insurance company operates in 15 national markets,
including New York, Texas, and California. Since it began operations in 2013
following the creation of the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges in
2012, Oscar has partnered with healthcare providers like Humana, Cleveland
Clinic, and Cigna to expand its presence in the health insurance
marketplaces across the country.
Oscar Health is considered one of the sectors top disruptors because of
its humanizing approach to scheduling doctor visits, virtual appointments
and prescription refills through its mobile app and online platform. In
2018, the company snatched $165 million from Capital G, the investment arm
of Alphabet, Googles parent company and Verily Life Sciences, a division of
Google X. Three years earlier, a previous iteration of Capital G, Google
Capital, invested $32.5 million in the start-up, reflecting the strong
interest of Big Techs most powerful corporation.
Peter Theils Founders Fund along with Goldman Sachs, one of the
underwriters for the IPO, also participated in the same venture capital
funding round of 2015 making Oscar Health a strong contender to become the
market leader in member engagement services across the rapidly changing
health insurance industry.
While observers have struggled over whether to categorize Oscar as a health
company or a tech company, even being called the hipster health insurance
company by Fortune magazine, Oscar is most definitely a tech company first
and foremost. It serves as a sort of platform for healthcare providers and
healthcare product vendors to scale their access to the telemedicine market,
which is exploding as a result of the pandemic protocols.
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Googles life sciences arm, for instance one of Oscars early investors
will be looking to the platform to help distribute high-tech health products
like the contact lenses it developed with Novartis AG that detect glucose
levels.
Getting in the game
Oscars CEO and co-founder Mario Schlosserr claims that he came up with the
concept for Oscar after his wifes first pregnancy. Speaking to Bloomberg in
2018, Schlosser said he identified a gap in the way the system works and
decided to launch an insurance company based on the consumer that would make
it easier for them to navigate the system.
Schlossers interest in consumer experiences can be traced back to the other
company he co-founded with Joshua Kushner called Vostu; the largest mobile
gaming company in Latin America. Started in 2007 in Brazil, Vostu grew to
become a gaming giant in the region, eventually capturing one-fourth of the
mobile gaming demographic and cementing lucrative partnerships with Wal-Mart
and Netflix, among others.
Just before launching into their foray into the health insurance industry,
Schlosser and Kushner began running into problems, including a copyright
infringement lawsuit brought against them by American competitor Zynga.
While the complaint was ultimately settled out of court, the duo soon exited
the company altogether after internal management and political issues with
the engineering and product teams.
Kushner Schlosser
This undated photos shows Josh Kushner, left, and Mario Schlosser. Photo |
Bruce Gilbert
A McKinsey & Company alumnus, Schlossers background runs through some of
the darkest corners of the technology, venture capital, and intelligence
nexus, including his stint at the Epstein-connected MIT Media Lab, whose
founder Nicholas Negroponte developed the abortive covert political
influence operation in Latin America known as the One Laptop per Child
initiative. Evo Morales was one of the many targets of the seemingly
altruistic endeavor and was used by Negropontes point man in Bolivia,
SoftBank executive Marcelo Claure, to weasel his way into the leader´s good
graces. John Negroponte, Nicholass brother, was serving as George Bushs
Secretary of State as the One Laptop per Child deals were being made
throughout Latin America. The program was denounced by African delegates at
the UN and eventually scrapped.
Schlosser also developed analytical trading models at the worlds largest
hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, which has been described as ¨cultish¨
given its somewhat Orwellian hiring practices. Schlosser concluded his time
at the firm just before former FBI director James Comey came in to serve as
the companys general counsel.
His longtime business partner and Harvard classmate, Joshua Kushner, runs a
private equity and venture capital firm called Thrive Capital, which also
has a stake in Oscar Health. Unlike his brother Jared, Josh considers
himself a life-long Democrat just like his criminally-convicted and later
pardoned billionaire father, Charles Kushner.
Friends and family plan
In addition to his investment, Kushner is said to provide significant input
in multiple aspects of the company like strategy, hiring, and marketing,
despite not having a day-to-day involvement in the health insurance
start-up. Nevertheless, Josh Kushners ties to the Trump White House over
the previous four years have certainly represented a significant leg up in
the burgeoning success of Oscar Health.
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His brother Jareds leading role in the administrations COVID-19 response
efforts has been linked to numerous irregularities surrounding procurement
contracts related to the pandemic, including a COVID-19 testing website
built by Oscar Health, who sent engineers, project managers, and executives
to the White House for the undertaking, which was eventually scrapped with
no explanation.
Donald Trumps son-in-law had a controlling stake in Oscar Health before
joining the administration, which together with the website fiasco was
enough to violate several federal laws. Jared Kushner and his brother Josh
were the two main controlling persons in Oscars parent company Mulberry
Health, Inc. a Delaware company.
Whether the Kushners will face any consequences remains to be seen. In the
meantime, Oscar Health is about to go public and reel in billions of dollars
through the New York Stock Exchange to continue growing the company named
after their great-grandfather.