Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan are creating a new healthcare company

[Wildreamz]

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan are creating a new healthcare company to tackle the ‘hungry tapeworm’ of rising costs
Jonathan Garber, Business Insider US January 30, 2018
http://www.businessinsider.sg/amazon-ber...?r=US&IR=T

• Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan are teaming up to try to make healthcare more affordable for their US-based employees.
  
• Americans spent an average of $714 on out-of-pocket healthcare in 2016, up 3.6% year-over-year.
  

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are creating a new business to lower healthcare costs for US-based employees in a move that could shakeup the healthcare industry. The companies will aim to improve employee satisfaction while reducing costs, according to a joint press release

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[Wildreamz]

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The Healthcare sector is begging to be disrupted (too much inefficiencies and waste). Right next to the Education industry. I reckon we would see some big announcements/move by Big Tech into the Education industry within a year.

[weijian]

"free from profit-making incentives and constraints"

I wonder how its final form will be based on the statement in the PR above. Will it be Amazon style? Or will the capitalistic nature of BH have its effect too? As in the case for all industries - if u have someone with deep pockets and profit is nt the priority, better run away at all costs..

[brattzz]

for healthcare & education, I support non-profit, personally I feel that it has be a country level initiatives! (Amazon and BH are richer than some countries!!)

[Wildreamz]

It's a brand new company; which is also non-profit making in nature. That said, it will likely serve Amazon, Berkshire employees first.

I'm guessing they are going to have the following characteristics:
* Health Insurance Mandate (employer will pay for the basic insurance of all employees)
* Group bargaining benefit (ie, group bargaining to negotiate better price with drug companies)
* Technology (eg. use of data analytics to track most common aliments, and see if efficiencies could be achieved by targeting and prioritise dealing with the most pressing health issues, use of software to establish a standardised, comprehensive electronic health record system etc.)
* Better screening policies (yearly or biannual comprehensive health check ups)
* Amazon styled management to operate at 1% margin

Summary: Basically a privately run "universal healthcare" system, with a touch of technology.

The true "capitalist" benefit would be the reduced insurance and healthcare cost at their parent companies. If this takes off, they could also benefit the world in general, reduce cost in the long run and bring Amazon-style deflationary pressure to healthcare sector as a whole, driving spending in other sectors. For a long time, drug companies has exploited the inefficiencies in the health care system to charge higher and more exorbitant rates. The era of obscene margin of pharma companies will likely end (if everything pans out).

[brattzz]

Amazon-Medi-adminstrator



figure it's the non-medical side that can be streamlined with technology. the medical side continue to focus on R&D and making human life more durable...