Tips & Advices
How Health Insurance Works for Tennis Players Like Venus Williams
WASHINGTON — Venus Williams made headlines for becoming the second-oldest woman to ever win a tour-level singles match this week in Washington, a story we’ve already covered here at Bounces this week.
But in the days since Venus’ win, I was fascinated to see an unlikely sector where her post-victory remarks made prominent waves and headlines: healthcare and health insurance.
Near the end of her on-court interview with Rennae Stubbs on Tuesday night, Venus brought up her health insurance status nearly unprompted.
“I came back—I had to come back for the insurance, because they informed me earlier this year I’m on COBRA,” Venus said, making a shocked face and laughing as Stubbs ducked out of frame to laugh. “So I was like, I got to get my benefits on! Started training.”
(COBRA, which stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, is a temporary insurance program for people who are no longer on their recent employer’s health program, which has higher costs than what the person would have paid while a current employee.)
“She’s actually not lying about that,” Stubbs, herself a former player, confirmed on court. “Because we talked about that about six years ago, so you’re actually telling the truth—insurance is hard.”
“I’m on COBRA,” Venus reiterated. “You guys know what it’s like. And let me tell you: I’m always at the doctor, so I need this insurance.”
Venus brought the topic up again in her post-match press conference when asked how far she thought she could advance in the tournament.
“Well, I’m just trying to figure out how many wins will it take before I’m off COBRA,” Venus said, smiling. “I haven’t asked the WTA yet, but I gotta just keep winning until finally my insurance kicks back in, so.”
The American model of tethering healthcare access and affordability to employment status is rare (and bad!), and that even a multi-millionaire like Venus Williams was framing her return to work around a need for healthcare coverage was striking for many.
Venus’ comments were used to spark conversations on all sorts of American news media outlets—ABC, NPR, People, The Washington Post and more.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, classified as “left-wing” for stances that would be seen as centrist abroad, used Venus’s comments as further evidence in his crusade for greater healthcare access and affordability.
“If a wealthy professional athlete needs to come out of retirement to afford to see a doctor, how is our health care system impacting millions of working-class Americans?” Sanders’ account tweeted.
To be clear, Venus Williams can probably afford nearly any bill she’s facing, even with COBRA: with earnings of $42,648,578, Venus is second all-time on the WTA Prize Money leaderboard, behind only her sister Serena’s $94,816,730. Venus has probably earned even more than that eight-digit prize money total through endorsements and other business ventures over her long career.
But still, high medical bills can be shocking for anyone, and Venus’s medical issues over the years have been well-documented, including her struggles in recent years with the uterine fibroids she had surgically removed last year.
I had two questions I wanted to answer as the talk about Venus’s health insurance status grew in volume: how tongue-in-cheek was she being about her comments suggesting health insurance was a primary motivator for her return to tennis? And how does health insurance work for active and retired tennis players?
After her second-round loss on Thursday, I asked Venus to clarify and for her thoughts on the wider topic and conversation which she had joined.
Venus laughed and smiled when I asked her if healthcare really had been a “main motivating factor” in her comeback to the tour, and later said it was “a fun and funny moment,” which I think confirms her statement should be taken with a grain of salt for context. But even though Venus is generally loathe to discuss any overtly political topic, she reiterated that the broader issue of affordable medical care is a serious one.
Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Your comments after your first singles win about the healthcare stuff generated a bunch of coverage of that and people talking about that. Could you clarify how serious or tongue-in-cheek that was about that being a main motivating factor for you coming back to tennis?
Venus Williams: Oh! (laughs)
Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Because some people took it literally. And I wonder if you appreciate from this new experience like the importance of healthcare in people’s lives? A lot of people really do have to rely on work to get the healthcare they need.
Venus Williams: Yeah. I mean, nobody wants to be on COBRA, right? That remains an issue in my life.
But obviously healthcare is so important and access to healthcare and being able to see the right and the best doctors for whatever you’re going through. I have had that opportunity. I had that opportunity last year to see, in my opinion, the best doctor ever. That was all possible because, you know, I had insurance. Without that, the bills are quite hefty.
So it is a serious issue. Obviously it’s a fun and funny moment, but it’s an issue that people are dealing with, so it is serious.
I reached out to both the WTA and ATP to find out more about how health insurance works for their players. Tennis players are often talked about as “independent contractors,” and independent contractors rarely receive healthcare coverage from their employers, but both tours do provide health care for the players who qualify as being “members” of the WTA or ATP.
Here’s what the WTA responded with:
All player members have the opportunity to enroll in a best-in-class global medical, dental and vision insurance plan
Player members are notified of their eligibility status following the year-end ranking release in order to enroll for the following year
The insurance plan is provided on an annual basis – Jan 1 – Dec 31
Players who are no longer eligible for membership (based on ranking) but were previously on the plan have access to the health insurance plan under COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) for up to 18 months
According to its rulebook, the WTA healthcare provider is Aetna Global PPO. The WTA further clarified when I followed up about requirements to be a “player member”:
If a player falls out of the current rankings of Top 150 Singles or Top 50 Doubles for Full Membership, they drop down to Associate Membership.
If they fall out of Associate Membership that means that they have not played at least 3 WTA 250 level event or higher (including GS) in the last 12 months and are not ranked inside top 500 singles or 175 doubles.
Though only the WTA coverage would be relevant to Venus, I was curious how the ATP side compared.
Here’s what the ATP provided when I inquired:
ATP player members are grouped as follows: Group 1 (Top 250 Singles, Top 50 Doubles) and Group 2 (all other players with a ranking point).
Group 1 membership includes:
Basic health insurance (with the option to purchase enhanced coverage). Includes limited coverage on dental and prescriptions.
Life insurance (automatically included within health insurance package)
Travel insurance (for travel to and from activities related to professional tennis)
Group 2 players are eligible to purchase health insurance (basic or enhanced) through ATP’s insurance provider.
When I asked about how it works for retired players, the ATP responded that “Currently alumni members can continue their coverage for up to 3 years (paid by the player through COBRA).”
According to one recently retired American ATP player I chatted about this topic with, the ATP uses Cigna as its health insurance provider, and the coverage is pretty robust, including for a player’s dependents.
Admittedly, the particulars of employer-provided healthcare was a pretty foreign topic to me as I set out writing this piece, since I have been freelance/self-employed for my entire journalistic career, and have just been on Obamacare. So if you’re ever inclined to help defray those or other bills—and keep the work I’m doing here at Bounces going strong—I appreciate you subscribing!
For more on the tennis this week in Washington DC, I was delighted to be joined by The Washington Post’s Ava Wallace for the latest episode of No Challenges Remaining.
When medical insurance provider Centene (CNC) opened its books to investors on Friday, the company reported a surprising loss and an uptick in usage.
The latter is a broader problem for the industry.
In the second quarter, Centene reported an adjusted loss of $79 million and a “health benefits ratio” of 93%. Its benefits ratio, or the amount of its revenue derived from premiums that it pays out for medical care, jumped from 87.6% in the same quarter last year.
Moves in that figure can have outsized effects on health insurers’ financial performance.
“Because of the narrow margins of our health plan business, relatively small changes in our HBR can create significant changes in our financial results,” Centene wrote in its Q2 earnings report.
And the problem is not isolated to Centene.
Elevance Health (ELV), which offers plans including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, reported a similar jump in its “benefit expense ratio” to 88.9% in the second quarter, up from 86.3% in the same quarter last year.
Both Centene and Elevance attributed the jump especially to their government-subsidized offerings under the Medicaid and Medicare programs.
Molina Healthcare (MOH), which reported Q2 earnings earlier this month, reported a similar outlook, attributing its lowered earnings guidance to the same trend facing other medical insurers.
“The short-term earnings pressure we are experiencing results from what we believe to be a temporary dislocation between premium rates and medical cost trend which has recently accelerated,” Molina CEO Joseph Zubretsky said in a statement.
Elevance stock dropped by roughly 12% after its report earlier this month, while Molina stock dropped by roughly 8%. Both stocks have remained depressed since.
Health Care (XLV) is the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 this year.
Centene stock dropped by roughly 15% in premarket trading after its earnings release before recovering to a positive gain of roughly 6% by the closing bell on Friday.
The buoy was led by CEO Sarah London’s announcement that Centene was reinstating earnings guidance after pulling this forecast earlier in the month. The company also reported revenue of $48.7 billion, which topped estimates for $44.2 billion, and said it expects to be able to raise the payments it gets from states for Medicaid plans, which would improve its margins.
The premium-to-cost ratio will be closely watched at UnitedHealth Group (UNH), which refers to this measure as its “medical care ratio” (MCR) and is slated to release Q2 earnings next week.
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The number of complaints about pet and livestock insurance referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) increased by more than a quarter over the past year, making it the fastest growing source of complaints in UK general insurance (UKGI) – according to exclusive analysis by market intelligence firm Insurance DataLab.
FOS data for the first quarter of 2025 showed that almost 600 complaints were made about pet related policies between January and March this year, up 26% from the same period in 2024, when fewer than 475 cases were recorded.
This means that pet and livestock insurance is now the fourth most complained about business line in UKGI, with complaints having grown by more than 146% over the last five years.
Another concerning development for the pet insurance market is that more than 52% of complaints were upheld in favour of the customer over the first three months of 2025. This is around 19 percentage points higher compared to the same quarter in 2024 and represents the highest upheld rate of any UKGI business line.
These data points suggest a broader issue beyond isolated service failings in the pet insurance arena – the findings hint at potential weaknesses in product design, policy wordings and claims processes across this marketplace.
“Pet insurance might still be a relatively niche product in terms of volume, but the direction of travel here is significant,” explained Insurance DataLab co-founder Dan King.
“It’s not just that complaints are rising – it’s that a growing number are being upheld. That should prompt some serious reflection from insurers about whether these products are delivering fair value and good customer outcomes.”
Insurance DataLab’s analysis found that while claims related complaints remain the most common issue – accounting for more than 70% of complaints made to the FOS for this line of business – pet insurance is seeing a widening range of concerns.
Indeed, complaints about sales and advice rose by 73% year-on-year and now account for nearly a fifth of all pet cover cases, up from just 14% in Q1 2024.
“This is not just about how claims are handled – it’s also about how products are sold and explained,” added King. “Customers are clearly finding themselves with policies that don’t perform as expected and that disconnect raises further questions under Consumer Duty.”
Individual firm impact
Travel insurance also recorded a year-on-year rise in complaints, with more than 1,050 cases referred to the FOS in Q1 2025 — up 6% year-on-year. The average upheld rate is 37% across these cases, although performance varied significantly between providers.
One firm accounted for nearly 30% of all travel insurance related complaints over the last 12 months – after cases against this specific provider doubled – with some 47% upheld in favour of the customer. This is 10 percentage points ahead of the market aggregate for travel insurance products.
“The fact that one provider can have such a disproportionate impact on the market shows the importance of forensic benchmarking,” King noted. “It’s not enough to look at the overall market – firms need to know how they compare to individual competitors and understand who the outliers are.”
High complaints
Despite the rising complaint volumes across the pet and travel markets, car and motorcycle insurance continues to account for the largest number of FOS cases overall.
Almost 3,150 motor related complaints were referred to the ombudsman in the first quarter of 2025 – down 27% from 4,325 a year earlier.
Motor insurance now represents 31% of all FOS complaints, down from 40% in Q1 2024. The average upheld rate has also fallen slightly to 38%, broadly in line with the market average across all business lines.
Buildings insurance was the second most complained about product line in Q1 2025, with 1,725 cases recorded – a slight decrease from the same period last year.
This business line also reported an improved upheld rate of 40%, down from 43% in Q1 2024 – although it is worth noting that this is still higher than the market aggregate across all business lines.
When it comes to claims related complaints – which accounted for approximately 81% of all buildings insurance complaints over the last five years – the upheld rate rose to 43%.
Continued claims challenges
The FCA’s recent review of claims handling in the home and travel market, published in July 2025, found issues around claims handling – particularly relating to storm damage.
The regulator noted that of the 118,890 claims classified as storm claims, around 32% saw a settlement payment being made. Meanwhile, 49% were rejected for reasons ranging from damage being linked to general wear and tear rather than a storm, or weather conditions not meeting the insurer’s definition of a storm.
A further 19% of policyholders decided to not continue with making their claim – King believes this indicated issues around the claims process itself.
“A significant number of customers are giving up on their claim partway through the process,” he said. “That should be a concern to any insurer – not just because of the potential compliance risk, but because of what it says about trust and clarity in the claims journey.”
The regulator’s aforementioned review also highlighted shortcomings in insurers’ management information (MI), particularly around customer outcomes.
It noted that some insurers lacked the data required to monitor performance effectively, especially when outsourcing claims functions, while others were not tracking outcomes at all. The FCA added that “this raises concerns about the quality of customer outcomes”.
The regulator also pointed out that MI was often “limited in detail and disproportionately focused on financial performance metrics”, indicating that more needs to be done to properly analyse and benchmark customer outcomes.
With regulatory expectations rising and complaints data offering increasingly detailed insights into customer outcomes, insurers will need to continually adapt how they monitor, benchmark and improve performance – particularly in areas like pet, travel and buildings insurance, where consumer dissatisfaction appears most acute.
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