Andy Schoonover, CEO and founder of CrowdHealth, joined Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour to break down what he sees as the core failures of the American health insurance system — for patients and doctors alike.
The conversation moves from claim denials and rising premiums to the company Andy built in response: a community-driven model where members pay providers directly instead of routing every expense through a traditional insurer. It's a practical, numbers-driven look at an alternative that has already found tens of thousands of members.
About Andy Schoonover
Andy Schoonover is the CEO and founder of CrowdHealth, a platform built around direct medical payments rather than conventional insurance. He started the company after his own experience with denied medical claims convinced him the traditional model needed a fundamentally different alternative.
Under Andy Schoonover's leadership, CrowdHealth has grown to more than 17,000 members who use the platform to access transparent pricing and pay providers directly, aiming to avoid the administrative costs and red tape common in traditional insurance. His work sits at the intersection of healthcare policy, entrepreneurship, and the growing cash-pay medicine movement.
What Andy Schoonover and Sean Kelly Talked About
- Why Andy Schoonover believes traditional health insurance fails patients and doctors
- How direct payments to providers can lower costs and cut out red tape
- What led him to build CrowdHealth after his own denied insurance claims
- Why cash-pay medicine is gaining traction among doctors and patients alike
- How CrowdHealth's community model works for its more than 17,000 members
- The growing role AI is playing in medical diagnosis and treatment
- His take on how obesity and chronic conditions drive healthcare costs
- Why he sees regulation as one of the biggest barriers to healthcare innovation
Why This Conversation Matters
For anyone frustrated by confusing bills and denied claims, Andy Schoonover's conversation with Sean Kelly lays out both the diagnosis and a working alternative already serving thousands of members. It's a grounded look at what healthcare could look like outside the traditional insurance model.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
Related Digital Social Hour Episodes
About Sean Kelly & the Digital Social Hour
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur and the host of the Digital Social Hour, one of the fastest-growing interview podcasts in the world, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and cultural voices for candid, long-form conversations. The show draws over 100 million views a month across platforms. Explore more guest features on SeanKelly.io.
About The Author
