Oscar Health is betting on consumer choice in the health insurance industry. The company announced a rebranding today that includes a refresh of its eponymous health insurance plan and the introduction of a retail platform, Lucie, designed to streamline the process of shopping for coverage.
As of Thursday, Oscar Health is now the parent brand for three businesses: Oscar Insurance, focused on individual coverage and member experience; Lucie, a marketplace where consumers can compare and assemble plans and add-ons; and Trove Group, a licensed health insurance agency connecting brokers with coverage providers.
The company also plans to expand its reach to offer individual and small business coverage in 400 to 600 new counties by 2029, Oscar executives announced to investors on Wednesday.
While the corporate identity of Oscar Health is expanding, its mission to give people power in selecting their healthcare options has not changed since the company’s founding, Oscar Health CMO Kristen Prestano told ADWEEK in an exclusive interview.
“We want people to continue to turn to us because they feel like our brands are giving them the power and confidence they need to make good decisions with their own money,” Prestano said. “It is a complete flip in a space [where] people feel pretty powerless.”
Lucie is positioned to help consumers navigate the “choice chaos” that too often comes with selecting a health insurance plan, Prestano said. The goal is to make shopping for coverage as intuitive as browsing Amazon, and for users to feel like they have a “sidekick” tool working on their behalf, similar to how people use ChatGPT.
Customers navigating Lucie can choose from a range of individual medical market plans not limited to Oscar Insurance, and the marketplace also centralizes supplemental plans like vision, dental, and family healthcare coverage.
Behind the scenes, the Oscar team is taking note from DTC brands and SaaS platforms, testing products with beta users and leaning on analytics to refine the customer journey. Oscar’s in-house agency Trove functions as a high-intensity test bed for the Lucie platform, working with brokers nationwide to streamline access to ACA and supplemental products.
Prestano also pointed to Oscar’s ad campaign that it launched last fall, “Made for Real Life,” as emblematic of the brand ethos.
Created in collaboration with the agency BUCK, “Made for Real Life” featured health stories from real Oscar customers alongside visuals that lean into the “beautiful messiness” of life rather than the sanitized imagery that so often defines the industry, Prestano said.
If the campaign feels hyper-local, it’s no mistake. The target audience for the campaign reflects who is actually shopping the individual health insurance market today: early retirees, small business owners, and gig workers make up Oscar’s main customer demographic.
