Skip to content
All posts

Why We Built PolicyAid: A Personal Story

By   ·  2 minute read

A few years ago, I embarked on a journey as a self-employed entrepreneur. This new venture required my wife and me to find health insurance for our family of six. Us plus four children, all under the age of seven.

Big tech companies often have great health insurance with low costs. However, this convenience quickly vanishes when you have to secure your own coverage or run a smaller company.

My wife dedicated a month to researching various policies, involving both her mother and me in the process. The goal was to find a policy that minimized changes to our current healthcare providers. One of our twin sons battles severe asthma, while two of our other children share the same genetic condition as myself. After researching, we chose a more expensive policy for $2,000 per month.

When the policy took effect in January we encountered our first major issue at the pharmacy. Our son's inhaler prescription was denied by the insurance. We contacted his pulmonologist to seek approval or find a covered alternative. Unfortunately, we discovered that the only inhaler covered by our insurance was a powdered type not recommended for children. After many frustrating calls, the insurance company said they couldn't help.

I was furious.

Challenge Faced

While I acknowledge the importance of cost-effective alternatives for certain medications, providing only one option that is not child-friendly is simply not acceptable. As a result, we now have to pay out of pocket to purchase his inhalers from a pharmacy in Canada. The worst part is that we were ultimately at fault. We chose this policy and, while ensuring our care providers were covered, we didn't check every single medication we used.

Looking back, we should have checked each policy more closely, but that's really hard while juggling work, household duties, and caring for four young kids.

There must be a better way.

Inspiration Strikes

That's when I conceived the idea of PolicyAid. Insurance policies can often be convoluted and packed with fine print, while agents and brokers, who may have a vested interest in commissions, can sometimes be biased.

How can I use my experiences, knowledge, and strengths to create a solution? Having gone through the frustratingly complex policy decision process, working in development and AI and wanting the best for my family, how could I simplify this process for everyone?

  • We have large language models capable of processing vast amounts of text.
  • We have Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and grounding for citing sources.
  • We have access to government APIs for the healthcare marketplace.

Dreaming Big

I set out to build an AI insurance platform to help people find, understand, and compare policies.

We're almost done! Get ready to experience the future of insurance comparison. Join the waitlist now!

 

I hope PolicyAid will save families time and money while offering peace of mind regarding their health. Together, we can turn the complex world of insurance into something simpler and more transparent for everyone.

Aid will save families time and money while offering peace of mind regarding their health. Together, we can turn the complex world of insurance into something simpler and more transparent for everyone.