Since 2001, GoHealth has been at the forefront of delivering improved healthcare as a marketplace for Medicare plans and other insurance plans. GoHealth is a digital platform changing how people access health insurance. Through its platform, people can access individual health insurance and short-term health insurance. The company is headquartered in the River North area of Chicago, right outside the Chicago brown line.
The company was established by Clint Jones and Brandon Cruz after personally experiencing the frustration of getting health insurance. The two founders thought that they needed to find a better way for insurance to be easily accessible in the healthcare industry. They founded GoHealth, which was named “Norvax, Inc.” at the time. In the beginning, the company’s primary services were creating websites and lead management software for insurance brokers before its almost two-decade-long series of evolution.
In 2004, the company developed a real-time quoting technology that helped brokers show their customers more insurance choices more quickly and efficiently. In 2008, it began to offer online comparison health insurance shopping and changed its name to GoHealth from Norvax the following year in 2009. Northwest Equity Partners invested $50 million into the company in 2012. By 2013, GoHealth partnered with the federal government to handle the enrolment of eligible residents from 36 states for subsidized health exchange-based plans. The Obama-led administration facilitated this partnership under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. In the same year, GoHealth expanded its Chicago locations to four by purchasing a 90,000 sq. ft. in Merchandise Mart.
With 500 local employees and 3000 global employees, GoHealth has locations in Charlotte, Utah, North Carolina, Slovakia, and Bratislava. In 2015, GoHealth partnered with ADP to enroll employees who did not have employer health insurance coverage for subsidized health plans. After President Obama’s tenure ended, the company focused on Medicare, and in 2016, it opened its North Carolina location. It opened another location in Lindon, Utah, in 2018, and Centerbridge Partners came knocking in 2019 with a majority stake investment in the company, which was valued at approximately $1.5 billion at the time. This investment became the largest investment any Chicago-based technology company ever received in the five years before that time. Northwest Equity Partners held on to their stake while co-founders Cruz and Jones held substantial equity stakes. In 2019, more than 3more than 378,000 people submitted their Medicare Advantage policy through GoHealth, which is a remarkable milestone in the company’s history.
GoHealth’s evolution over the years has seen the company serve its customers better, expand its services, increase its locations and workforce. In June 2020, despite the raging pandemic, the company announced its plan to file for IPO, which would give the public the chance to buy stakes in the company. Chicago is known for many things, and GoHealth is proudly one of them, and it is diligently revolutionizing how people access health insurance to ensure a healthier America. GoHealth has an excellent rating, and the company continues to grow in leaps and bounds.
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