Oscar Health, Inc. (OSCR) — Fundamental Analysis
Snapshot & Big Picture
Oscar Health is a tech-driven health insurance company focused on the individual and small-group markets, primarily through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace. Founded in 2012 and publicly listed in 2021, Oscar has pursued aggressive membership growth, expanding from a niche digital insurer into one of the faster-growing ACA carriers in the United States. The core thesis is straightforward: use technology and data to manage medical costs better than legacy insurers, while building a consumer-friendly brand. For most of its public life, Oscar burned cash at a significant rate, but the financials have shifted noticeably in recent periods — making this a company worth examining closely right now.
Latest Quarter Snapshot (Q1 2026 — Most Current Data)
The most recent data available comes from Oscar's 10-Q for the quarter ending March 31, 2026, filed May 7, 2026. This is more current than the annual figures and paints a markedly more positive picture.
| Metric | Q1 2026 Value |
|---|---|
| Quarterly Revenue | $4.65 billion |
| EBITDA | $711.1 million |
| Operating Margin | 15.2% |
| Net Margin | 14.6% |
| Current Ratio | 1.09 |
| Debt-to-Equity | 0.26 |
A single quarter producing over $711 million in EBITDA and a 15%+ operating margin is a dramatic departure from Oscar's historical losses. Q1 tends to be a seasonally favorable quarter for health insurers (lower early-year utilization), so these figures should be interpreted with that context in mind — but they nonetheless signal a meaningful operational inflection point.
Profitability — Multi-Year Trend
Oscar's profitability story is one of steady, hard-fought improvement from deep losses toward breakeven and, most recently, positive territory. The annual trend is shown below.
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | EBITDA | Operating Margin | Net Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $488.2M | -$252.5M | -53.1% | -53.5% |
| 2020 | $462.8M | -$391.0M | -86.9% | -87.9% |
| 2021 | $1.84B | -$529.9M | -29.6% | -31.1% |
| 2022 | $3.96B | -$574.6M | -14.9% | -15.3% |
| 2023 | $5.86B | -$204.9M | -4.0% | -4.6% |
| 2024 | $9.18B | $89.4M | +0.6% | +0.3% |
| 2025 | $11.70B | -$367.5M | -3.4% | -3.8% |
The trend from 2019 through 2024 shows consistent margin improvement — losses shrank dramatically as a percentage of revenue, and 2024 marked Oscar's first full year of positive EBITDA and net income. The 2025 annual figures, however, represent a step back into negative EBITDA and operating margin territory, suggesting that cost pressures — likely elevated medical loss ratios industry-wide in 2025 — weighed on results. The Q1 2026 quarterly data then snaps back strongly positive, which may indicate that pricing adjustments and underwriting changes made for 2026 plan years are taking hold.
Financial Health
| Fiscal Year | Current Ratio | Debt-to-Equity |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1.24 | 0.00 |
| 2022 | 1.26 | 0.33 |
| 2023 | 1.26 | 0.37 |
| 2024 | 0.82 | 0.30 |
| 2025 | 0.95 | 0.44 |
| Q1 2026 (most recent) | 1.09 | 0.26 |
Oscar's balance sheet reflects moderate leverage. The debt-to-equity ratio has remained relatively contained, peaking at 0.44 in fiscal 2025 before declining to 0.26 in the most recent quarter. The current ratio dipped below 1.0 in both 2024 and 2025, which warrants monitoring — for an insurer, liquidity management is critical. However, Q1 2026 brought the current ratio back above 1.0 at 1.09, a modestly encouraging sign. Gross margin data was not available in the filings provided. Overall, the balance sheet does not appear distressed, but Oscar is not a fortress of liquidity either.
Growth
Oscar's revenue growth has been exceptional by virtually any standard. The table below shows trailing revenue CAGRs computed directly from annual 10-K filings.
| Window | Start Year | End Year | Start Revenue | End Revenue | CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Year | FY 2022 | FY 2025 | $3.96B | $11.70B | 43.5% |
| 5-Year | FY 2020 | FY 2025 | $462.8M | $11.70B | 90.8% |
| 10-Year | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Not available — Oscar does not have 10 years of SEC filing history as a public company (IPO was in 2021) |
A 5-year revenue CAGR of approximately 90.8% and a 3-year CAGR of 43.5% reflect explosive membership and premium growth driven by ACA marketplace expansion. While such growth rates will naturally moderate as the revenue base scales, they demonstrate Oscar's ability to rapidly capture market share. The key question going forward is whether growth can be paired with sustainable underwriting profitability.
Plain English Summary
Oscar Health started as a money-losing startup trying to reinvent health insurance with technology, and for years it burned through hundreds of millions of dollars annually. That story has changed significantly. Revenue has grown from under $500 million in 2020 to nearly $11.7 billion in 2025 — one of the fastest growth trajectories in the health insurance industry. The company turned its first annual profit in 2024, only to slip back into a small operating loss in 2025, likely due to the same elevated claims costs that hit the entire health insurance sector that year. But the most recent quarterly data — Q1 2026 — shows a very strong bounce back, with a 15% operating margin and over $700 million in EBITDA in just one quarter. The balance sheet carries modest debt and liquidity has stabilized. The core risk remains Oscar's exposure to ACA marketplace volatility: regulatory changes, shifts in the risk pool, and medical cost inflation can quickly swing results. If Oscar can consistently execute on underwriting discipline while maintaining its growth momentum, it has moved from a speculative growth story to something that looks more like a maturing, profitable insurer. The 2025 stumble is a reminder that it's not there yet — but the direction of travel, especially as signaled by Q1 2026, looks constructive.
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