"So we went into hospice. I went down to the chapel, took the scapular off around my neck, the rosary from around my neck put it on the altar, and said, "Me for him." And at that moment, I made the bar..."

"I would love to begin with the story of this beautiful, incredible ring that you're wearing. Yes. >> You, were, just, telling, me, about, it, and then we rushed over here to get rolling so that we don..."

"And a friend of mine sent me this momento mori ring. He said "Remember you will die." And when you look in Renaissance paintings, there's always see a skull. That's the concept of momentto mori. Remem..."

"So,, I, laid, in, the, water, and, it, took, them two hours to get me out of there, but the water was just running across the back of my neck. >> And, um, as, they, extracted, me,, there, was, a lot o..."

"I, want, to, talk, a, lot, about, that, period of of struggle and exploration, but I would actually love to begin by setting the stage with sort of like a a one minute life story up until that point. ..."

"And so it was one of those rough and tumble sort of, you know, you had to compete for households. >> Yep., You, know,, and, it, was, um,, with, days when there wasn't any real organized sports for kid..."

"And so take that into my career. I was an auto worker in the assembly line of Ford Motor Company when I flunked out of college. I did rear axle differential housing on the Mercury Bobcat. Um, and um, ..."

"Ultimately realized after working on the streets of Detroit as a paramedic, that I shouldn't be a doctor. Um, that it wasn't the thing I wanted to do. And so, I decided to get an accounting degree bec..."

"I said, "Wow, this is a cool place. I want to go to school here." So that's how I went. So I was married at the time. My wife and I went and we moved to Ithaca. She worked as a public health nurse in ..."

"When I graduated, I was talking to Wall Street about doing invest, you know, investment banking or um I was talking to Mike Milin at Drexel about junk bond trading because I was top of my class in fin..."

"Describe, what, it's, like, to, have, a photographic memory. >> Scary., It, makes, you, lazy., So, when, in, in high school when I took my exams, I went to a public high school. Um all I had to do is ..."

"I remember I had to recalibrate my learning. Um, and then in business when people hand me spreadsheets, I remember them. And when the cell changes and I view myself as a forensic scientist looking at ..."

"maybe you could describe the key chapters now, starting with the HMO up through what you're doing now. just we'll go into each in more detail but just maybe give us the chapter headings as you think a..."

"um, and, that's, where, I, developed, the concept of platonists versus arisatilians >> right, plist, plonists, are, people, who think the great idea communicate it and consider their job done >> and, ..."

"There, are, a, lot, of, people, with, great ideas. Not too many people can actually make them happen. >> So, that, was, that, chapter., We, fixed, the business, turned it around. Ultimately it got sol..."

"Um, and that was my next chapter going to work in a larger organization to see if I could do what I did with my first turnaround, which was the first company I had. I went to work there. That got sold..."

"They were losing a million dollars a day when I showed up in 2022. Um and we had to fix that and that took a took us on a whole journey. and and and so my career has had one job search which was my fi..."

"and, so, all, of, my, jobs, after, that, were people who reached out to me to ask for help >> so, when, you, go, into, a, new, situation let's I want to talk of both fix and build."

"Um, what is the strategy that you've developed for fixing something broken? Like the I'm interested in the deep details of the steps you go through when you encounter one."

"You, have, to, get, down, in, the, mud, and crawl on your belly below the pillbox slot >> so, you, don't, get, shot., And, it's, just, literally the work of doing deep deep thinking."

"And in the beginning, I can tell you because I was a group, you know, MBA out of Cornell and I had all these brilliant ideas that I knew all the answers and didn't need a lot of help."

"So just it's just like any idea. So instead of waiting for all the perfect information to move forward what you do is you develop a hypothesis build a process around managing that hypothesis, take in ..."

"And if you look at all the great innovations in our society, those things didn't start as the thing that entrepreneur started with Apple, right? That those green and orange and yellow boxes, you proba..."

"So it's about this sort of navigation. And so, to do it today and when I went to Oscar, the first 10 weeks, all I did was do deep dives with everybody in the met everybody, sat in the room, asked ques..."

"and all we had to do is pick them up and manage them. and and Josh I remember called Josh Kushner called me and said I hear you're like in meetings asking questions when when are things going to happe..."

"I said Josh I have screwed up everything this company has, screwed, up, at least, twice, myself."

"I've broken it all and I know what I I could walk in here and say do this, do this, do this, do this, do this and we'll be just fine."

"And people will look at me and go who are you? Cuz you know I doubled the age average age of the employee population when I walk in the building right? Who are you? What what is an old man in here tel..."

"And, and, I, said,, but, what, I, want, to, do, is find out where people are and how they think about it so that I can figure out how to bring them to a place because I can't fire everybody."

"I want to bring them to a place where they can succeed. And, so, and and, I, said, my, leadership philosophy is we are here to help ordinary people do extraordinary things."

"And if we can help them by showing them then or talk asking questions and bringing them along, we can we can fix things."

"Yes. >> How? >> All, they, need, to, do, is, believe, they, can do it."

"How, do, you, get, them, to, do, that? >> Tell, a, story, about, why, it, matters."

"Can, you, teach, us, about, like, a, cliffnotes version of the history of US health insurance? It was started 80 years ago um as a result of soldiers and and and and personnel coming back from war and..."

"So we now have employers who buy insurance for a large group of people providing a limited range of benefits that on average control the price of their of the of that benefit without really looking at..."

"One of the things that you hear all the time is this system is so octopus-like. Yes. And so complicated and so entrenched that it's just sort of feels hopeless >> that, it's, bad."

"We, need, to, eliminate, employer, sponsored insurance >> and, we, need, to, say, we're, going, to, let individuals buy their own but we need a marketplace to do that and that's what the ACA has creat..."

"And when employers buy insurance, they buy large networks because they have all these employees in multiple places. and they give a range of benefits but only a few which is sort of fits the average o..."

"So, that's what we should do. if I could draft in like the smartest skeptics or or the ones that least wanted to have that outcome other than obviously incumbency that you know where businesses benefi..."

"Maybe, you, can, describe, like, the, state, of the union of Oscar today. So just like describe for those that aren't familiar with the business, I think people know like the very broad broad strokes."

"We're expanding to more markets as we speak. And the idea is to continue to um bring to them tools that they can use."

"so we have a chatbot we're about to launch that helps people understand their condition in a deep way."

"We have implemented over 20 almost almost two dozen um um large language models on the back end of the business that have reduced our operating costs."

"So, we think, we can, serve, 125, million people. So um the last group of insured business on a group basis is middle market and small group employers."

"If we get everybody to move that way where every American gets the choice to pick my network, my benefit plan."

"The idea is better risk management um equalizing the risk across the population."

"There's, going, to, be, resistance, at, the large end employers. They have benefit staffs of hundreds of people."

"There are consultants that advise large employers and get paid a fee every year."

"So, we have all of these, you know, interian warfare going on between the states and the federal government over how you spread the cost of this."

"And, so, I, have, lived right in that place my whole career. I am an iconoclast. >> What, does, that, mean, to, you?, What, does, it mean to you to be an iconoclast?"

"So, for, a, long, long, time, we, sort, of deferred to our clinicians and said you know, whatever, you, think, I, ought to, do doctor I want to do."

"And so this idea of using AI as a way of gathering information and giving you insights, I I always say to people, the mental model that exists inside your head about how the world works is the most cr..."

"New information to it and are not a continual learner, you can't possibly know what you need to know to make good decisions."

"And there are just certain things that are just not going to end well."

"I had to put my son in hospice July 15th, 2002."

"that we put in that isn't his bone marrow. So finding the right mismatch happened to be my my my my brother Peter who's the third in in the line. John's 11 months behind me. Peter's 10 months behind J..."

"He came home in um on February 18th of 2003. Holy His kidneys were damaged. So he got my left kidney two years later cuz I had the best match for a kidney. And they did it laparoscopically by then. Th..."

"So I go in, I get on the table and this woman puts her hands on my head and on, my, sac. All, of a, sudden, I, she, goes, "Give me just four visits." After four visits, I started coming off all my dru..."

"So I said, "You, know what?, I, think, we, ought, to do yoga for our employees." And I'm the president of the company and everybody sitting the room goes, "Oh, sure, boss. That's a great idea." The ch..."

"So, I did this program. Um, it was $75 million. Um, the first year I was at the JP Morgan conference on January 1st January 2nd of 2015 and I announced it in front of 240 of our 340 million shares and..."

"chess and the other person playing checkers at the same table or the one I always liked was a bunch of nights staying on the field half of them with the top of their armor going off. Why do we have to..."

"Because I did work with IDO with George Blankenship who built the Tesla dealerships and the uh first Apple stores. And when we talked to people, they didn't describe themselves as a disease state. Lik..."

"And, so,, if, you, could, have, a, conversation with a diabetic who had pedal neuropathy and say, "What is it about your feet that get in the way of the life you want to lead?" They say, "I can't go t..."

"So, how can we get people engaged in improving their life and living the life they want by helping them be better? >> And, that's, what, you, get, to, do, at, Oscar now. >> That's, what, I, get, to, d..."

"How, do, you, know, what, to, do?, I, like, this idea that the job of the CEO is to know what to do. >> How, do, you, know, what, to, do? >> It, starts, with, the, mental, heroist, stick in your head...."

"I constantly educate myself. I remember Sir Michael Marmmont was coming to Columbia University and Linda Freed who's the dean of the public school the school of public health calls me up and goes I'd ..."

"And so we started building programs around in the home. We had a 72-y old lady in Camden, New Jersey, $2.7 million worth of health care costs in one year. $45 ER visits in the same year, more than one..."

"I said, "We got to do more in the home. We got to get connected to the home. We got to be closer to the customer. We got to make things more convenient for them." And we are now able, thank God, for t..."

"And so he he stayed there. So I was working with him and he said, "We don't do virtual healthcare. We have to put our hands on people." That changed with the pandemic. Wait a minute. We can do somethi..."

"A big part of the answer to the question is constant curiosity. >> Constant, curiosity. >> The, courage, was, the, other, part, of, this. Can you define courage? Like what does courage feel like in yo..."

"And often people search for perfect information before they make it and then it's too late. It's a non-decision which is as bad as anything. So let's make a decision based on a hypothesis. So another ..."

"And I have this doctor, Dan Chilton. Love the man. Um, family practitioner, general medicine. And he's, "Doctor, don't do that." And I call, he call him that because I used to say, "Well, you know whe..."

"Um, he looks at the bottle of water. He walks out. He goes "Wait a minute." He comes back with a 16 bottle of Diet Coke. I he says, "Drink it." And while I'm drinking, he's yelling at me about how scr..."

"He goes "Stop. What just happened?" He goes "Well, Mark, my last two years of medical school," my father was the dean of the medical school at University of Virginia, and his buddy was at NIH in in Lo..."

"It's based on having a good hypothesis in your brain and knowing how to test it effectively to decide whether or not you're on the right track because we don't have all this stuff. Said, so you've got..."

"What is your unfinished business, if any? >> I'm, going, through, this, debate, internally about, you know, why do I continue to work? What am I looking for? What am I trying to find? And I don't know..."

"I hate large groups. When I get up in front of large audiences, I'm sick to my stomach. Um it really is trouble for me. And and and it's not because I'm not confident in myself. It's just that I'm I'm..."

"I mean, it's my foundation. We're rebuilding the libraries and the elementary schools in Harlem. We have created a reforestation plan for our f five burrows of New York. Um, and we're planting trees n..."

"Never, waste, a, good, crisis. There's opportunity in everything that confronts you. And I would say, and um it was actually Kino Reeves that said this, um the challenges that come your way um the thi..."

"and the person that's coming out of the other side. What I've learned is every crisis you face, you can't go back. You can only go forward. And you just have to pick up the pieces and start rebuilding..."

"What, is, the, kindest, thing, that, anyone's ever done for you? >> I've, had, so, many, people, be, so, kind, to me. It's really hard to dist distinguish one thing. When I was in the hospital with Er..."

"And um there was this doctor, Dr. Gynan, who came up with this treatment. And um and every time a dark turn would happen I get a phone call from her and I didn't know why. I mean, she was not on the f..."

"And I used to go over there to work out um every day. The only time I left Eric was from 10:00 to 11:00 every day. I went to the gym to work out and they would do a sponge bath and all that other sort..."