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 Williams on court Thursday in Washington. ((Wick Photography / Mubadala Citi DC Open)
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!
Citigroup has launched the Strata Elite credit card, positioned as a premium travel rewards card for frequent travelers with a $595 annual fee. It sits strategically between the more expensive American Express Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards, offering high-end perks at a lower cost than its direct competitors.
This card is specifically designed for affluent customers—a group with high spending power and strong credit profiles whom Citi aims to attract with hopes of cross-selling wealth management and other financial services.
Rather than overwhelming users with many niche benefits, Citi advocates for a streamlined rewards package. The offering delivers core high-value perks instead of what executives describe as “a coupon book” of benefits, a shift aligned with growing consumer preference for clarity
When cardholders book through the Citi Travel portal, they earn elevated multipliers—12× ThankYou points on hotels, car rentals and attractions; 6× points on airfare and CitiNights weekend dining; 3× points on other dining; and 1.5× points on all other spend.
If fully utilized, the card can deliver nearly $1,500 in annual value through statement credits and premium benefits. Highlights include a $300 annual hotel credit for qualifying stays, a $200 “splurge” credit redeemable with partners such as American Airlines, Best Buy, or Live Nation, $200 in Blacklane chauffeur credits, and a $120 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit every four years.
Additional perks include four Admirals Club lounge passes annually, complimentary Priority Pass Select membership, no foreign transaction fees, and extensive travel insurance coverage—including trip delay, baggage loss and rental car protection.
Citi extends fee relief to Citigold clients: Citigold Private Clients receive a full rebate the first year and pay $145 per year subsequently, while standard Citigold members get a $145 annual credit toward the fee.
Even at $595 per year, analysts consider the Strata Elite competitively priced compared with the Sapphire Reserve’s $795 fee and AmEx Platinum’s $695. MarketWatch reports that as premium card fees climb, Citi’s simpler value proposition aligns with customer bluntness toward overcomplicated perks.
These AI systems also help insurers decide how much care a patient is entitled to — for example, how many days of hospital care a patient can receive after surgery.
If an insurer declines to pay for a treatment your doctor recommends, you usually have three options. You can try to appeal the decision, but that process can take a lot of time, money and expert help. Only 1 in 500 claim denials are appealed. You can agree to a different treatment that your insurer will cover. Or you can pay for the recommended treatment yourself, which is often not realistic because of high health care costs.
As a legal scholar who studies health law and policy, I’m concerned about how insurance algorithms affect people’s health. Like with AI algorithms used by doctors and hospitals, these tools can potentially improve care and reduce costs. Insurers say that AI helps them make quick, safe decisions about what care is necessary and avoids wasteful or harmful treatments.
Presumably, companies feed a patient’s health care records and other relevant information into health care coverage algorithms and compare that information with current medical standards of care to decide whether to cover the patient’s claim. However, insurers have refused to disclose how these algorithms work in making such decisions, so it is impossible to say exactly how they operate in practice.
Using AI to review coverage saves insurers time and resources, especially because it means fewer medical professionals are needed to review each case. But the financial benefit to insurers doesn’t stop there. If an AI system quickly denies a valid claim, and the patient appeals, that appeal process can take years. If the patient is seriously ill and expected to die soon, the insurance company might save money simply by dragging out the process in the hope that the patient dies before the case is resolved.
This creates the disturbing possibility that insurers might use algorithms to withhold care for expensive, long-term or terminal health problems , such as chronic or other debilitating disabilities. One reporter put it bluntly: “Many older adults who spent their lives paying into Medicare now face amputation or cancer and are forced to either pay for care themselves or go without.”
Insurers argue that patients can always pay for any treatment themselves, so they’re not really being denied care. But this argument ignores reality. These decisions have serious health consequences, especially when people can’t afford the care they need.
That means there’s no public information about how these tools make decisions, and there’s no outside testing to see whether they’re safe, fair or effective. No peer-reviewed studies exist to show how well they actually work in the real world.
There does seem to be some momentum for change. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, which is the federal agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, recently announced that insurers in Medicare Advantage plans must base decisions on the needs of individual patients – not just on generic criteria. But these rules still let insurers create their own decision-making standards, and they still don’t require any outside testing to prove their systems work before using them. Plus, federal rules can only regulate federal public health programs like Medicare. They do not apply to private insurers who do not provide federal health program coverage.
Some states, including Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Maine and Texas, have proposed laws to rein in insurance AI. A few have passed new laws, including a 2024 California statute that requires a licensed physician to supervise the use of insurance coverage algorithms.
But most state laws suffer from the same weaknesses as the new CMS rule. They leave too much control in the hands of insurers to decide how to define “medical necessity” and in what contexts to use algorithms for coverage decisions. They also don’t require those algorithms to be reviewed by neutral experts before use. And even strong state laws wouldn’t be enough, because states generally can’t regulate Medicare or insurers that operate outside their borders.
A role for the FDA
In the view of many health law experts, the gap between insurers’ actions and patient needs has become so wide that regulating health care coverage algorithms is now imperative. As I argue in an essay to be published in the Indiana Law Journal, the FDA is well positioned to do so.
The FDA is staffed with medical experts who have the capability to evaluate insurance algorithms before they are used to make coverage decisions. The agency already reviews many medical AI tools for safety and effectiveness. FDA oversight would also provide a uniform, national regulatory scheme instead of a patchwork of rules across the country.
Some people argue that the FDA’s power here is limited. For the purposes of FDA regulation, a medical device is defined as an instrument “intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.” Because health insurance algorithms are not used to diagnose, treat or prevent disease, Congress may need to amend the definition of a medical device before the FDA can regulate those algorithms.
If the FDA’s current authority isn’t enough to cover insurance algorithms, Congress could change the law to give it that power. Meanwhile, CMS and state governments could require independent testing of these algorithms for safety, accuracy and fairness. That might also push insurers to support a single national standard – like FDA regulation – instead of facing a patchwork of rules across the country.
The move toward regulating how health insurers use AI in determining coverage has clearly begun, but it is still awaiting a robust push. Patients’ lives are literally on the line.
In this commentary: Should I cancel my summer vacation?
in this commentary
Summer vacation plans are in jeopardy as travelers grapple with sticker shock, overwhelming crowds, and safety worries.
Are your reasons for canceling valid, or just excuses? This commentary separates the legitimate concerns from the lame ones.
Before you pull the plug on your trip, you need to know about the potential fallout—from disappointed family to steep financial penalties.
Is the thought of going on summer vacation too much for you? Too much money, too much hassle, too much everything?
Well, you’ve got company.
Americans are having second thoughts about their summer vacations, according to Stephen Day, director of Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Economic Education.
“People think their vacation dollars won’t take them very far,” he says.
A new survey finds that more than half of Americans are cutting back their summer travel plans, spurred by economic worries and price increases.
Should they? The answer is yes — and no. There’s no requirement to take a summer vacation. But there are also good — and not so good — reasons to cancel this year’s summer vacation.
You don’t have to take a vacation this summer
You may feel some pressure to go somewhere this summer, but experts say that’s nonsense.
“There’s nothing wrong with staying home,” says Susan Sherren, who runs Couture Trips. “I respect a client who says, ‘We just can’t afford a trip this year.’ I appreciate that kind of honesty. Financial stress can spoil a vacation.”
The best reason to postpone or cancel a summer vacation is your personal circumstances — health issues, job loss, or personal crises. Friends and family can put a lot of pressure on you to go somewhere. Maybe there’s that moment next to the water cooler after Labor Day where you’re comparing your vacation stories with your colleagues, and maybe it fills you with dread.
So I’ll let you off the hook. If someone gives you an eye-roll when you admit you stayed home this summer, show them this column. Read Sherren’s quote. Hold your head high, my friend.
Summer vacation is not mandatory.
Here’s why you should cancel your summer vacation
There are legitimate reasons to call off your summer vacation.
It’s too expensive
Face it, traveling this summer is far from affordable. Airfares and hotel rates are trending higher in many popular places. “It’s massively expensive,” says Sarah Davies, who works for a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. She’s thinking of canceling her summer trip to Italy. “Is it a wise use of our finances?” she wonders. (Typically, if you have to ask that question, you already know the answer, which is to cancel.)
It’s too crowded
Crowds will probably be a serious problem this summer. Maria Szandrach has already canceled her summer vacation in Portugal. “I had everything planned — days wandering through Lisbon’s historic streets, exploring the stunning cliffs in the Algarve, and indulging in way too many pastéis de nata,” says Szandrach, who runs a technology company in San Francisco. “But after reading about how crowded things were going to be, I decided to cancel.” She says she didn’t want to spend her entire vacation “packed like a sardine at every major site.” And that’s a legitimate concern.
It’s too dangerous
Sebastian Garrido, a marketing manager for a tour operator based in Mexico City, says he’s canceled his summer vacation to visit his family in northern Mexico because he’s worried about security. “Northern Mexico is not the safest place,” he says. That may be an understatement. The U.S. State Department has warned of gun battles, murder, armed robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, forced disappearances, extortion, and sexual assault along parts of the border with the U.S.. Better choose a safer summer vacation destination.
Bad reasons to cancel your summer vacation
But there are also reasons people are calling off their summer vacation that don’t really hold up. Those include:
“I can’t leave my pet alone”
Oh, for heaven’s sake! Get a friend to stop by your place to feed or walk your dog, or to house sit while you’re away, and enjoy a little time off. If you can’t bear to part with your furry friend, then find a pet-friendly summer vacation.
“I’m too busy for a vacation”
What nonsense! If you don’t take a little time off, you’re going to burn out. Everyone needs a little downtime away from the phone and laptop and spent with friends or family. You have to make the time.
“I’m not a good traveler”
Guess what? No one is a good traveler. Travel is uncomfortable, expensive and inconvenient — but once you get to your destination, it’s usually worth it. So don’t give me any excuses about being a bad traveler, please.
Your voice matters
🖐️ Your voice matters
Are you having second thoughts about your summer vacation this year? What are your biggest concerns—cost, crowds, or something else?
And what do you think is the best reason to cancel a trip?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Warning: If you cancel your vacation, you will have to deal with this
If you decide to cancel your summer vacation plans, be prepared for a few things. First, there will be fallout from the rest of your family or travel companions, who were really looking forward to seeing Rome or Lisbon this summer. You may have to promise them a do-over during the fall, when travel will be less expensive and crowded, so that’s a real win-win.
But second, and equally important, is that you could face some steep cancellation penalties. If you’ve already prepaid for airfare and hotels, you may lose some money. (That’s one reason I sometimes recommend travel insurance, especially “cancel for any reason” travel insurance. Because stuff happens.)
I’m having second thoughts about my summer travels, too. I’m currently in Germany and headed to Greece next week. I’m trying to avoid the popular places, and I’m staying flexible just in case things take a turn for the worse.
You never know.
The smart traveler’s guide to canceling a vacation
1
Review your policies first
Before you do anything, read the cancellation policies for your flights, hotels, and tours. Pay close attention to deadlines and non-refundable clauses.
2
Contact vendors immediately
The sooner you notify companies of your cancellation, the better your chances of a refund. Use email to create a written record of your request.
3
Understand your refund options
Companies may offer a cash refund, a future travel credit, or a voucher. Know the difference and the expiration dates for any credits offered.
4
File a travel insurance claim
If you have travel insurance and are canceling for a covered reason (like a medical issue), start the claims process right away. Be prepared to provide documentation.
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