This week on Second Opinion, Christina Far interviews Courtney Bragg, CEO and co-founder of Fabric Health, about their innovative approach to delivering healthcare services in laundromats. They discuss the challenges and opportunities in the Medicaid system, the importance of building trust and relationships in healthcare, and the critical role of human elements alongside technology.
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LINKS:
Fabric Health: https://fabrichealth.org/
Christina Farr's Second Opinion Newsletter: https://secondopinion.media/
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FOLLOW:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cdebragg/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinafarr/
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EPISODE:
• Most healthcare startups chase the obvious markets, but Fabric Health found something different: 32 million Americans spending two hours weekly in laundromats, 70% of them women making healthcare decisions for their families.
• Founder Courtney Bragg's counterintuitive insight: you need "muffins before mammograms" - build genuine relationships before pushing healthcare services on people who've been burned by scams.
• The approach works because it's human-first with tech as an enabler, not the other way around - they integrate with laundromat systems but lead with offering someone a laundry cart.
• After 837 days in laundromats, they learned the hard way that walking up and asking "do you have insurance?" is tone-deaf; real conversations start with Eagles football talk in Philly.
• The results speak for themselves: 27,000 families enrolled, profitable before raising VC money, and hiring directly from the communities they serve.
• The healthcare system is genuinely broken in absurd ways - like sending a blind woman a paper letter asking her to confirm she's still blind to keep her benefits.
• System dysfunction runs deep: kids auto-assigned to different health plans (one mom juggling four), caseworker calls flagged as "scam likely," transportation benefits that stop 2 miles short of available care.
• These aren't technology problems - they're human problems that require understanding real people's lives, not building apps in isolation.
• The Medicaid opportunity is massive and misunderstood: 80 million Americans, nearly half of all births, but VCs avoid it because they think "poor people don't pay enough."
• Political noise around Medicaid cuts is mostly theater - too many hospitals and jobs depend on it, plus "a lot of people who wear red MAGA hats are on Medicaid."
• States are actually begging Fabric to expand because they see results, with Medicaid directors personally requesting their services.
• The real opportunities ahead are in maternal and pediatric care, where states face real financial penalties for missed metrics.
• Courtney's unconventional background in education taught her community organizing - skills most tech founders lack but healthcare desperately needs.
• Her advice for mission-driven founders: "you've gotta be obsessed with what you're building because you care deeply about it" - most startup founders are just chasing trends.
