How I Found a Way to Ease the Pain of Health Insurance Costs

How can something so vital to human life feel so lifeless? That's the question Alex Cyriac found himself asking about the health insurance industry after medical complications left his mother struggling with years of chronic pain.

- BRIAN CONTRERAS

As the bills stacked up and his family faced tough financial decisions, Cyriac-who has a background in software, operations, and salesthought there had to be a better way. By 2016, that conviction had led him and his childhood friend Shobin Uralil to found Lively, a fintech that offers health savings accounts, or HSAs. For Cyriac, now 41, the goal is to be a consumer-friendly alternative to the industry mainstays: fewer forms and fees, plus no getting brushed off by unhelpful customer service reps. It's a mission that's clearly resonating.

When I was an undergrad, back in 2002, a close relative in Germany was diagnosed with leukemia. My mom ended up being a perfect match, so she flew to Frankfurt and did a bone marrow transplant. But there were complications during the procedure and she has been on long-term medication as a result.