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Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Team Up to Disrupt Health Care
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced on Tuesday that they would form an independent health care company to serve their employees in the United States. The three companies provided few details about the new entity, other than saying it would initially focus on technology to provide simplified, high-quality health care for their employees and their families, and at a reasonable cost. They said the initiative, which is in the early planning stages, would be a long-term effort "free from profit-making incentives and constraints."
The partnership brings together three of the country's most influential companies to try to improve a system that other companies have tried and failed to change: Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world; Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company led by the billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett; and JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States by assets.
Various health insurance and pharmacy companies were hit by the news:
The move sent shares of health-care stocks falling in early trading. Express Scripts Holding Co. and CVS Health Corp., which manage pharmacy benefits, slumped 6.7 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. Health insurers Cigna Corp. and Anthem Inc. also dropped. The health-care industry has been nervously eyeing the prospect of competition from Amazon for months. While the new company created by Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan would be for their U.S. staff only, this is the first big move by Amazon into the industry. The new collaboration could pressure profits for middlemen in the U.S. health-care supply chain.
Related: $54 Billion Anthem-Cigna Health Insurer Merger Rejected by U.S. Judge
CVS Attempting $66 Billion Acquistion of Health Insurer Aetna
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @07:56PM (18 children)
What about those Canadians who recently had to find medicine in the States? [foxnews.com]
Anyway, your situation in the United States would be handled by your insurance. Now, it would be nice if the insurance system were simpler and cheaper, but you can blame a long history of governmental meddling for that irksome complexity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:04PM (1 child)
FDA won't admit Tide pods are food!! It's a conspiracy!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @01:25AM
I buy generic laundry detergent and am not aware of what's going on with name brands, so I had to check to see if we are thinking about similar things.
Yup. [google.com]
In years past, the brand was Salvo. [google.com]
(Fist-sized tablets of detergent.)
For laundry, they were convenient.
If you were the owner of an outdoor fountain, however, in time, you could expect a salvo of Salvo tablets being thrown into it, requiring a total flush.
...and some fountains had goldfish in their pools.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Informative) by quacking duck on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:19PM (6 children)
Invalid example. A federal agency overseeing pharmaceuticals not (yet?) approving a medication in Canada is no different than the FDA prohibiting US sales of drugs that are otherwise legal in other jurisdictions.
Such as preventing cheaper prescription drugs into the US from companies that *are* licensed in Canada: Opponents of easing federal laws on drug importation, including the pharmaceutical lobby, say it could expose Americans to unsafe medicines that haven’t been vetted by U.S. regulators [morningconsult.com]
So right there we have a bunch of *capitalist* companies preventing access to medications, and enlisting the aid of government officials to enforce the ban.
A more direct counter to your post is this: FDA denies approval of muscular dystrophy drug [nhregister.com], which is fully legal and marketed "in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Israel and South Korea"
In any event, GP is talking about health care, not pharmacare.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:47PM (4 children)
Irrelevant. Canada failed at basic medical care. End of argument over the superiority of Canada.
Enlisting men-with-guns to prevent voluntary trade is not an example of capitalism.
Indeed, that's an example of anti-capitalism; it's an example of authoritarianism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:09PM (3 children)
Spewing lies every day is a shitty way to live. My guess is you're a paid shill, otherwise you'd probably have better quality arguments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:28PM (1 child)
I hereby declare the following reply:
"You must be a Russian troll or paid shill!"
to be the New Godwin; if you reply in such a fashion, then you automatically lose the argument.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:06PM
I hereby declare all ACs who throw tantrums about downmods and repost their screed to be losers. It is the new loser, much worse than yesteryears. Even the 80's say "at least our hair wasn't THAT bad."
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:47PM
It's a qualification for White House Press Secretary.
You don't need better quality arguments to get paid. Again, see White House Press Secretary.
Every performance optimization is a grate wait lifted from my shoulders.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:49PM
The above comment [soylentnews.org] was marked "Troll", and so I have reposted it here on behalf of the original AC, and I will continue to do so.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:35PM (3 children)
I love Canada. America is deeply fortunate to have a neighbor like Canada. We have before us the opportunity to build even more bridges -- bridges of co-operation and bridges of commerce. Not a wall. I would not build a wall on the Canadian border. With Canada, you're talking about a massively long piece. You're talking about a border that would be about four times longer. It would be very, very hard to do -- and it is not our biggest problem. I don't care what anyone says. It is not our big problem.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:53PM (2 children)
The maple syrup must flow.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:07PM (1 child)
Yes! Canadian maple syrup must flow!...over my boday...and have gorgeous nerdy Canadian girls licking it off of me...yes...lick it off my boday...my chest, by legs...my....
Oh, shit....where'd i put those gluten free pancakes....?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @12:58AM
man up [kodiakcakes.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:54PM (3 children)
I'm tired of this stupid propaganda. No system is perfect. I'm sure you can find legitimate examples of things going wrong in countries with single payer systems. The point is not that single payer systems are perfect, but that they are much better than our for-profit price-gouging healthcare system. When something bad happens in a single payer system - or even if it can be spun to make it seem as though something went wrong - the corporate media never stops talking about it, but when tens of thousands of people die every year in the US due to not being able to afford healthcare... crickets.
Another comment, possibly yours too:
Some instances of things going wrong does not mean their system is not better. Try again, and this time without nirvana fallacies.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:30PM (2 children)
I think the point of this troll is to sow discord and derail conversations. It isn't about right/wrong, it is about preventing people from gaining momentum. One trollish comment and the conversation is de-railed into debunking their idiocy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:53PM (1 child)
You've almost New-Godwinned. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @12:01AM
So you're saying you're a neo Nazi huh? Why don't you go get another tattoo or something.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:04PM
That may (or may not) be true but there are many US citizens who drive, even fly, into Canada to buy prescription medications because the same drugs and insurance company's co-pays are to damn expensive.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--