We aim to provide a lower cost alternative to catastrophic health insurance that gives people the peace of mind they need to live exceptional lives.

Leveraging crowdfunding, we do this by building processes + technology that help members get cash payments from other members when they suffer unexpected accidents or critical disease that lead to costly medical expenses.

Some of us just want to cover our asses for a reasonable price, and then have the freedom to pick and choose healthcare as we need it.

By covering your tush with CYA and going cash pay (ie pay for healthcare yourself), people save thousands of dollars per year while also preserving their freedom of choice in healthcare.

Learn more by reading our blog post.

Pay monthly membership to be part of the community. Membership is $38 / month. 100% goes to your own CYA Member account that’s earmarked for member donations until there is enough donations to pay members without external help. At that point we will split membership dues 50-50 between donations and running CYA.

If you have an accident that leads to Urgent Care, ER, Outpatient Surgery, or Hospitalization, let us know via text. Once the bill comes, send it to us first, we’ll help negotiate it down.

We will fight the hospital for deep discounts, ranging from 30-85%. Using technology and our team of passionate, trained bill negotiators, we will advocate for you until they make moves. We will also help you explore financing options if/when appropriate.

Once we are done negotiating, and we verify that everything checks out, we will collect donations from Member Accounts, and then send you a virtual debit card fully loaded with the specified amount.

At the end of each month, any funds from your Member Account unused as donations to the community will rollover to the net month and gain interest.

Also at the end of each month, we will provide a monthly report of use of funds, including who was funded with as much (or little) detail as they are willing to share to the community. We completely respect privacy and members are under zero pressure or expectation to share their stories to the rest of the community.

See How It Works for more details

CYA studied this inside and out with an experienced team of medical payment experts to determine that $50k will pay for more than enough of a hospitalization for the vast majority of accidents. Based on studying medical claims data for 1.4 million Americans aged 18-50, the probability of you having an accident that costs more than $50k in a single year is 0.1%. Hence CYA is confident that $50k is a sufficient amount for accidents leading to hospitalization.

It’s also worth noting that $50k is up to 5x more than the average accidental insurance plan, which typically offers very limited coverage as a way of covering part of out-of-pocket costs due to health insurance deductibles, coinsurance, or just plain claims denials.

Further, if in the rare occasion $50k isn’t enough, CYA will both help members navigate financing medical bills as well as do another round of donation requests from members for the remaining amount.

Legally we can’t make any guarantees, otherwise we’ll be considered insurance. What we can say is we have meticulously modeled the economics of our model such that the community will be able to support your and all members’ medical costs up $50k through membership dues.

To protect the community, we will not provide financial support for injuries sustained before becoming a member, from self-harm, or illegal activities. This shouldn’t be the norm, not even close. Make sure to review our Member Guidelines. We do have a thorough arbitration process in the rare event that we disagree on whether your injury qualifies for crowdfunding. So long as it wasn’t self harm or illegal,,

The monthly membership number (and amount earmarked for donations) is based on rigorous modeling and stress testing with experienced, PhDs in data science to plan for the even the most conservative, plausible scenarios. These scenarios are based on millions of data points from past hospital incidence rates and costs/

As we bring on more members, the risk of not having enough money in the community to back everyone else goes down significantly. In order to have financial backing up front to cover the community in the early days, we are partnering with investors to cover the community for the first 200 members. Our team of medical payment experts have run sophisticated models to determine this number. Once we reach our cap of 200 members, we will bring on more capital to bridge the community to self-sustainability.

Yes! CYA can be a supplement to your current health insurance. If you have an accident or critical illness, use your primary insurance and then get a cash payment from other CYA members. CYA can also further negotiate down whatever hospital bills remain after your primary insurance company covers its part. (Insurance companies typically deny 20% of claims so unfortunately there still may be plenty owed.)

Unlike traditional insurance, CYA employs a novel use of crowdfunding. We don’t centrally manage a pool of money, rather process pre-committed donations from members-to-member. CYA also doesn’t price your membership based on your medical history like Health Insurance does. Further, we are organized based on common set of beliefs as a community. We are neither a regular for-profit corporation nor a non-profit, rather a Public Benefit Corporation who’s aim is to use the free market to fuel and grow our impact of helping individuals and families get financial assistance when they need it most.

Our community is bound by the following two common set of beliefs:

1) We believe in taking personal responsibility for our thriving.

2) We believe in taking an active role in supporting our fellow humans and living beings thrive, no matter their race, religion, gender, sexual preference, politics, or anything outside of the fact that they are living beings. We’re in this together.

Yes, and we have a social mission too. CYA is a public benefit corporation. Unlike regular C-Corps whose goal is to maximize shareholder value only, our goal as a public benefit corporation is to maximize stakeholder value, which basically means we prioritize helping regular people and doctors thrive as much as generating income for our staff and angel investors.

People who want to cover their asses without breaking the bank while maintaining their freedom of choice of healthcare, including:

-Soloprenuers, self employed, consultants, gigsters, freelancers

-Small businesses under 50 full time employees

-Active people

-Students

-Foreigners visiting or residing in the US

-Employees on high deductible health plans (aka catastrophic plan) who want a better alternative, either as a replacement or a supplement

-People wanting to quit their job and live their dream but are scared to due to the uncertainly around being able to pay for unexpected accidents

-People in between jobs

-Users of DPC (Direct Primary Care) who want to pair primary care with coverage just in case of a big unexpected medical expense

-People who use the traditional medical system often

-People who are at high risk of cancer and other critical illnesses.

-People with chronic conditions and pre existing conditions

In all of these scenarios, while you can certainly still use CYA in addition to your health insurance for added financial protection around accidental injuries, the CYA community does not currently provide financial assistance for diseases or pre-existing conditions.

-People who want financial assistance for accidents while outside of the US

Yes! We expect to get anywhere from 30-85% discounts on hospital bills which is the industry standard for professional hospital bill negotiators. All we will need is an itemized bill, and we will do the rest.

We will scan your bill for duplicates and over charges, compare against market rates, and ultimately get on the phone with the hospital billing department and negotiate HARD on your behalf.

You do! After CYA has coordinated the crowdfunding for your reduced medical bill(s), we will send you a lump sum for you to then pay your health care providers (doctor(s), hospital, ambulance service, lab(s), etc.).

Yes! We are agnostic to which doctor you see or hospital you go to. So as long as you are seen by a licensed medical professional in the US, our community has your back.

The security of Member Data is important to us. CYA stores and processes Member Data in accordance with industry standards and applicable law, ensuring that Member Data is protected from unauthorized access, use and disclosure. Read our Policy Privacy for more.

As soon as we reach 200 Founding Members. January 2024 is our target.

Yes! You can offer this as a benefit to your employees or simply refer them to us. We will provide group rates so contact us to discuss.

Donations made via CYA are generally considered to be "personal gifts" which, for the most part, are not taxed as income in the United States. Additionally, these donations are not tax deductible for donors.

The best way to ensure that you are in compliance with the tax laws is to maintain adequate records of donations received and consult with a tax professional. As part of CYA’s Terms and Conditions, you have represented that you are not providing any goods or services in exchange for the donation of funds. As a result, CYA will not provide you with any tax documentation for money raised on your fundraiser, nor will CYA report the funds you collected as earned income.

Donations made via CYA Membership dues are generally considered to be personal gifts and aren’t guaranteed to be tax-deductible. But, you can always check with a tax professional to be sure. You won’t be issued a tax receipt from CYA

Alas, no. The IRS has not carved out alternative community based coverage models like ours yet in what can be purchased using your HSA. We hope that changes one day.

Under Obama, there used to be. Not anymore after Trump defunded the penalty. The following states have put in place their own penalties — if you don’t live in these states, you are fine:

California.

D.C.

Massachusetts.

New Jersey.

Rhode Island.

Vermont (but there's currently no financial penalty attached to the mandate)

If you live in these states, a simple google search will tell you what the penalty is.