Brew Markets Inside the Health Insurance Recovery Plan at Oscar
Feb 20, 2026
Scott Blackley, Oscar Health CFO and seasoned public-company finance leader, outlines the company’s recovery plan and tech-driven playbook. He discusses state-by-state expansion, how ACA policy and 2025 disruptions shaped results, the push to lower medical loss ratios through disciplined pricing, ICRA employer-funded choice, and Oscar’s AI and cloud-native stack for personalized care.
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ACA Is In Repair, Not Ruin
- The ACA's existential risk has faded and political dialogue now focuses on improving the marketplace.
- Scott Blackley says recent policy talk is about making access cheaper and reducing fraud, which he views positively.
State-By-State Market Playbook
- Health insurance is regulated state by state, so Oscar enters markets one at a time and establishes a local foothold.
- Scott Blackley describes a land-and-expand playbook of learning local systems then scaling within each state.
2025 Was A Market Reset Year
- Policy changes in 2025 caused a market reset that hit all carriers and altered marketplace composition.
- Scott Blackley attributes Oscar's 2025 losses to CMS integrity initiatives and Medicaid redeterminations increasing utilization.