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Vitable Health’s acquisition of Liferaft makes it the first health benefits platform to offer a vertically integrated ICHRA with Direct Primary Care that delivers lower costs, better care, and zero administrative burden, tapping into a market expected to offer insurance to over 11 million individuals according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
PHILADELPHIA, May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Vitable Health, the leading all-in-one health benefits platform making healthcare more accessible to small businesses and their employees, today announced its acquisition of Liferaft‘s HRA platform. Vitable Health’s acquisition of Liferaft is a critical piece in building the first unified platform to solve the “Impossible Triangle” of employee healthcare, in addition to lowering costs while expanding coverage by harnessing AI to eliminate costly administrative burdens that previously made affordable, quality care elusive. This breakthrough comes as 58 percent of small businesses report they can no longer afford traditional group health insurance, leaving more than 80 million Americans uninsured or underinsured.
Vitable Health Acquires ICHRA Provider Liferaft, Expanding Affordable Health Coverage to Business Owners Nationwide

“For decades, employers have faced an impossible choice: affordable healthcare that’s low quality, high-quality care that’s unaffordable, or burning countless hours managing fragmented benefits and point solutions,” said Joseph Kitonga, Founder and CEO of Vitable Health. “By combining Liferaft’s ICHRA technology with our direct care network, we’ve broken through the impossible triangle and created something revolutionary: a single platform for employee healthcare and benefits, that eliminates these painful tradeoffs completely.”
By integrating Liferaft’s ICHRA platform into its existing healthcare services, Vitable Health is the first national provider to offer both ICHRA-based coverage and end-to-end primary care services under one platform. Utilizing AI and cutting out bureaucratic costs associated with middlemen, Vitable Health has eliminated roughly 25 percent of healthcare costs that are typically wasted on administration – allowing employers to reinvest those savings directly into high-quality care for their teams, rather than overhead. Without the exorbitant administrative fees of traditional ICHRA providers, Vitable Health has built a robust, fiscally sustainable platform that saves businesses and their employees money, while offering seamless and delightful access to essential care.
By integrating Liferaft’s ICHRA offerings, Vitable Health is the first to break through healthcare’s historically “Impossible Triangle” by offering:
Liferaft, founded by Nimish Shukla and Ian Blumenfeld, has helped hundreds of employers design custom HRA-based benefit plans. Known for trusted broker relationships and product flexibility, Liferaft brings deep ICHRA market knowledge and proven implementation infrastructure. The partnership accelerates Vitable Health’s go-to-market timeline by at least six months and unlocks new opportunities across both broker and employer channels.
“We’ve spent years simplifying healthcare benefits for growing teams,” said Nimish Shukla, Co-Founder and COO of Liferaft. “In Vitable Health, we found a partner with a shared belief that better care should be both accessible and affordable. Together, we can deliver real impact to millions of workers, and we can do it now, not later.”
About Vitable Health
Vitable Health is the health benefits platform making healthcare better for everyday workers. With a focus on real access over red tape, Vitable Health offers employers affordable, ACA-compliant health benefit solutions—including MEC and MVP plans, ICHRA and QSEHRA options, Direct Primary Care, Dental and Vision coverage, and Hospital Indemnity. Every plan includes access to primary care visits, mental health services, and over 1,000 covered prescriptions and labs with zero out-of-pocket costs. To date, Vitable Health has raised $25 million from top-tier investors such as First Round Capital, Y Combinator, Cherryrock Capital, Citi Bank’s Impact Fund, Commerce Ventures, Jack Altman, Michael Seibel, Immad Akhund, and SoftBank Opportunity Fund. Learn more at vitablehealth.com.
Contact: [email protected]
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About Liferaft
Liferaft is a technology-enabled HRA platform that helps businesses and benefits partners move beyond traditional group health plans. Designed for small and midsize employers, our modular, API-driven system enables the launch of out-of-the-box HRA solutions or fully custom, self-branded benefits programs. Powered by proprietary integrations and a claims engine, Liferaft streamlines plan design, automates compliance, and delivers hands-on support – making personalized, tax-advantaged healthcare simple to offer and easy to manage. Liferaft was founded by insurance, technology, and financial services professionals and raised $11 million in funding from leading investors, including XYZ Venture Capital, Costanoa Ventures, and Oceans. Liferaft serves a wide range of clients, from tech startups and logistics companies to educational nonprofits. Learn more at liferaft.co.
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SALT LAKE CITY — In light of Youth Mental Health Awareness Month, local advocates and youths gathered Tuesday at the Utah State Capitol to explore problems and solutions focused on mental health in the state.
“Some of the biggest things we heard from the community was feeling like as many resources as there are, a lot of families don’t know they exist,” Kaden Mattinson, the executive director of the organization Mending Minds Village. “So, that creates a big problem.”
Around 80 attendees took their concerns to legislators during the event, hosted by the School Mental Health Collaborative and Mending Minds Village.
FOX 13 News spoke with 17-year-old Mac Martin, one of the teenagers who gave a speech during the event.
“I’ve always felt very deeply. Every emotion I feel is there,” said Martin, a junior at Mountain Heights Academy. “And it’s not going away.”
Martin said she can empathize with just about anyone. Since she can remember, she has struggled with her mental health.
“It started getting bad when I was around nine years old, depression-wise. I’ve struggled with anxiety and paranoia my entire life,” she said.
Research shows that 1 in 5 Utah children experience a mental health disorder each year. Suicide remains the leading cause of death for Utah youth ages 10-17, so Martin wants to be a part of a solution.
“I’ve always wanted to be involved in this community or start a nonprofit,” she said during the event. “Seeing these things and people giving me active steps on how I can be more involved is really inspiring.”
Martin is breaking barriers with the people around her, including her parents, Thayne and Brooke Martin.
“Mac didn’t want to open up to us at first, but we continued to ask questions, let her know that we’re there to support her,” Brooke said.
Martin hopes to break more barriers for a brighter future.
“It’s easier for me to understand other people’s situations than it may be for others,” Martin said. “So, I want to use the way my brain is wired to help people, and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life.”
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Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell wasn’t feeling right.
The physician from Reno, Nevada, knew what to expect after giving birth to her second daughter via cesarean section in 2016. Then she felt dizzy and had a dull pain in her stomach. Curry-Winchell relayed her concerns to the nurse who had wheeled her into the delivery room.
“Bayo, you look fine. Everything looks fine,” the nurse told her.
But everything was not fine. Curry-Winchell called her obstetrician, who rushed to the hospital and took her back into the operating room. Doctors discovered she was bleeding internally.
“I had the most access in the world. I’m a medical director; I have a badge to the hospital and it didn’t save my life. It allowed the dismissal to happen,” she said.
Maternal mortality rates are 3.5 times higher for Black women than their white counterparts. These disparities are partly due to limited access to quality prenatal care, comprehensive insurance and nutritious foods that would sustain a healthy pregnancy.
However, researchers found these disparities still exist regardless of income and education, according to a 2023 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research looking at childbirths in California.
Unconscious bias among healthcare providers “plays a big role” in this medical paradox, said Dr. Kisha Davis, chief health officer for Montgomery County, Maryland, and a board director for the American Academy of Family Physicians.
“Many women feel like their pain wasn’t listened to, their symptoms were ignored, they had a concern or question and didn’t feel comfortable,” she said. “It’s really critical to make sure we check these biases at the door.”
Research suggests the remnants of the medical community’s long history of racial bias persist in modern day. A 2016 study found that nearly half of first- and second-year medical students believed that Black people have a greater pain tolerance, thicker skin and feel less pain than white patients.
These medical biases may also impact mental health treatment. Forty percent of Black women experience maternal mental health symptoms and up to half of these women don’t receive support for it, according to the March of Dimes, a nonprofit aimed at improving the health of mothers and babies.
Davis said this is especially important as studies show mental health conditions are the leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S.
“Doctors need to do a better job of listening to our patients and helping them feel safe. Our patients need to push us to make sure that we are respecting them and respecting their care,” Davis said. “It’s a systemic issue… The challenge is on us to make the system better.”
One way to improve the system is to hire more Black doctors as research has shown patient outcomes are better when providers look like them, said Katherine Sacks, associate director of health economics at the Milken Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank based in Santa Monica, California.
“Having someone who listens and understands and has a good relationship with you is extremely important – not just for maternal mortality,” she said. “We want people to have a good (birthing) experience. Birth trauma is very real for a lot of people who survive.”
Curry-Winchell’s birth trauma inspired her to pursue healthcare advocacy. Her goal is to empower patients with information, tools and tips to advocate for themselves, such as preparing questions ahead of a doctor’s visit or bringing a trusted friend who can speak up during the appointment.
She hopes her work can help other women avoid the trauma that she experienced nearly 10 years ago.
“That’s what really fuels my desire to continue to help as many people as possible,” she said. “Your health is truly your most prized possession.”
Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.

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