People should not get bankrupt because of health care related expenditure, believes Doug Hirsch, co-founder and co-CEO of digital pharmacy GoodRx, and says that it is important to take measures to prevent such things happening.

In a television interview, Hirsch said that the average American is left in a bind because the average deductible costs more than $1,500. He added that even a $1,000 medical emergency cannot be covered by the majority of millennials in the United States because they do not have enough money saved.

“That means most Americans would literally go bankrupt before they can actually afford to get coverage from their insurance,” Hirsch said in the interview to CNBC.

The business model of GoodRx is to provide a platform to its users to help find and compare prescription drug prices with the use of high end technology. The aim of the company – when it was launched in 2011, was to create a bridge between health insurance companies and pharmacies so that it is possible to offer discounts to customers and promotion of the best options that are available for customers, said Hirsch.

Together with fellow tech veterans Trevor Bezdek and Scott Marlette, Hirsch, a former Yahoo executive, was a co-founder of GoodRx.

Hirsch said that the company is currently able to impacts about 2 per cent of U.S. prescriptions and has 10 million monthly users. The company is backed by Silver Lake, and currently is valued at $2.8 billion. Hirsch said: “so we got a long way to go to help all Americans.”

Its users have been able to save more than $10 billion on prescriptions the company said.

“We have a great relationship both CVS and Walgreens because they actually want consumers to get an affordable price for their drug, ” Hirsch said. “We always start from the premise: Whatever is best for the consumer is what we’re gonna show them first.”

Providing real-time prices at 70,000 stores across the US, GoodRx also partners with Target, Kroger, and Walmart.

Prevalence of predatory prescription pricing and a lack of transparency have been the main criticisms against the US health care system. While accepting that there is need for reforms in the industry, many of the leaders of both major political parties have also argued that the prices should be dictated by the market. Plans to mandate drug companies to reveal prices in television advertising were announced by the Trump administration last week in its efforts to enhance transparency in the industry.

Talking about the functioning of his platform, Hirsch explained that the company makes use of its large database of pricing information across various pharmacies and then suggests that consumers the available options at the nearby drug store locations.

“[Pharmacies] need to work with insurance companies,” he said. “They need to work with people like us to come up with a price so that they can again provide an affordable price to a consumer and at the same time be able to make some money.”

(Adapted from Zukus.com)