Through the Looking Glass

Glen Tullman envisions an upside-down world-one where health care isn't broken and patients get the treatment they need at a cost they can afford. Now all he needs to do is bring transparency to a system that, by design, is anything but clear.

- By Bill Saporito. Photograph by Kevin Serna

If you take the drug Humira to treat the skin condition plaque psoriasis, the cost is $35,000 annually. If you have insurance where you work, as more than 156 million Americans do, it will foot most of the bill. That's $350,000 over 10 years. Yet a cheaper solution exists, a handheld light-therapy device called Zerigo that is just as effective at a 10th of the cost. Most patients and employers don't know about it, because their insurer doesn't approve this treatment. So you and your company pay too much.

Hell's waiting room has a special spot reserved for insurers. The deductibles, the coverage limits, the life-sapping paperwork that adds stress to whatever is actually ailing you. (Their inability to approve an equally effective, far cheaper device.) Employers hate them, doctors hate them, hospitals hate them, for raising costs while usurping billions in profits.

But nobody hates insurers the way Glen Tullman does. You're never going to see United Health saying, 'Next year, we're going to reduce our earnings and reduce our profits to help the health care system operate more efficiently.' It's the opposite,” he says.

For years, the serial entrepreneur from Chicago has channeled that bile into startups tackling problematic pieces of the puzzle. (Zerigo doesn't just exemplify the illogic of our health care system; it's also one of his disruptive investments.) Now, Tullman aims to make health care cheaper and better, full stop. So, he's attacking the insurers directly.