Oscar Health Insurance Review: Affordable Coverage, Good Service

Although Oscar customers are generally happy with their doctors and how easy it is to schedule an appointment, the company scores poorly on how well its doctors and hospitals do on certain tasks, such as routine screenings, vaccinations and ongoing care for some medical conditions. If you have complex medical needs, you may be better off with a different company.

Oscar health insurance pros and cons

Is Oscar health insurance good?

In particular, Oscar stands out for its excellent 5-star member experience rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). This measures how happy Oscar customers are with their plan, the quality of their medical care and how easy it is to get care.

Oscar also scores well for customer service and how easy it is for customers to get the information they need. However, the company has just an average 2.7-out-of-5 star score overall, and a below average score when it comes to average health outcomes.

That means you shouldn't consider Oscar if you need serious medical care. Instead, consider a company with a better rating for this category, such as Kaiser Permanente or Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Oscar Health Insurance plan options and costs

An Oscar Silver health plan costs $673 per month, on average, for a 40-year-old. That's $79 per month less than the national average.

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Oscar has some of the cheapest Silver and Gold plans, on average, among large health insurance companies. Only Kaiser Permanente and Molina have more affordable average rates.

Oscar is a particularly good choice if you want a cheap Bronze plan. It has the second most affordable average rates among major health insurance companies.

Average monthly cost of Oscar vs. top competitors

Oscar only sells Platinum plans in New York state. APlatinum plan from Oscar costs an average of $1,805 per month, which is slightly more than the New York state average of $1,740 per month.

You can also get a Catastrophic plan from Oscar if you're under the age of 30 or you can prove you'd struggle to pay for a higher plan tier. Oscar sells affordable Catastrophic plans, with coverage that costs an average of $274 per month for a 21-year old. That's well below the national average of $353 per month.

Keep in mind, Catastrophic plans typically aren't a good choice for coverage. And you can often get better coverage for less by getting discounts, called subsidies.

Oscar plan options

When you buy an Oscar health plan, you'll get to choose from Simple, Classic and Elite categories in addition to your plan tier. These include:

It's important to remember you'll have to make two choices when it comes to buying an Oscar medical plan. First, you need to determine what plan tier is right for you. Then you need to choose from one of these three options.

For example, if you have average medical needs, you might pick a Classic Silver plan. But someone who's young and healthy might be better off with a Simple Bronze plan.

These plan options give you more choice when it comes to fine tuning your medical coverage compared to other health insurance companies. For example, if you want a cheap monthly rate and slightly more coverage than you'd get with a normal Bronze plan, you can choose a Classic Bronze.

People with certain illnesses have access to Simple plans specially designed for specific illnesses, also called condition-specific plan options.

Oscar plans cover preventive lab testing, and you'll pay less if you use one of Oscar's preferred labs: BioReference, LabCorp or Quest Diagnostics. If you have an Oscar policy, make sure to ask your doctor to send any lab work to a preferred hospital.

Oscar Health Insurance: Member resources and unique features

Oscar offers unique customer benefits like wellness programs, $0 virtual urgent care and dedicated customer support staff. You can access these benefits through the Oscar smartphone app or website.

In the app and website, you can keep track of your progress toward the deductible and access telehealth therapy tools. You can also get cash benefits by engaging in healthy behaviors. For example, you could get $50 toward healthy groceries by completing an annual wellness visit, or you could earn up to $455 by taking steps to manage chronic pain conditions.

Once you buy an Oscar health plan, you'll get a welcome kit that includes your plan ID cards, a summary of the policy benefits, and a list of all the extra benefits.

Where does Oscar sell health insurance?

Even if you live in a state with Oscar health insurance, you may not have access to an Oscar plan. That's because availability often depends on the county where you live.

Oscar Health Insurance Reviews

Oscar customers report high levels of happiness with how well their insurance works, but a more objective look at the data shows Oscar customers tend to get below average care.

That means Oscar customers are generally happy with the quality of their doctors and how easy it is to get the care they need. But it's important to note the company has a roughly average overall rating and a poor star rating for how customer health outcomes.

Oscar also scores well for customer service and how easy it is for customers to get needed information.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology

To calculate rates for Oscar health insurance, individual health insurance rates were taken from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for plans available on HealthCare.gov.

ACA star ratings came from CMS, and company-specific information was taken from the Oscar health insurance website. Quality ratings include an overall plan rating as well as separate ratings for categories including plan administration, medical care and member experience. Companies receive ratings on a scale from one to five with one representing the worst outcome and five being the best.