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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 30 2018, @06:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the one-stop-shop dept.

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


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:01PM (14 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:01PM (#630558)

    "our current system will actually cost more in the long run due to the price-gouging middle men that are for-profit insurance companies"

    What percentage of health care costs do the middle-men account for? If middle-men are the problem then as health care costs have spiraled out out of control the past decade you'd see insurance company profits skyrocket by the same percentages, which they haven't.

    Health care in the US is expensive because everyone wants all the latest greatest treatments with no regard to cost when someone else is paying for most/all of it. If everyone had to pay for all health care costs themselves out of pocket, prices would drop like a rock as people shopped around and chose the most cost effective solutions. Of course that doesn't work from a humanitarian standpoint for most people. In other countries bureaucrats (sometimes corrupt and/or incompetent) decide what the costs should be and what should be covered, but Americans love their freedom.

    Has anyone found a good solution to healthcare that balances personal responsibility, humanitarianism, and freedom?

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:05PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:05PM (#630562) Journal

    Look! They have the machine that goes 'bing'!

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:08PM (3 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:08PM (#630566) Journal

    Canada??

    Love Canada.

    Love it.

    Jeph Jacques moved to Canada.
    http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3666# [questionablecontent.net]
    So WE could pay for his physical problems.

    Americans seeing Canada as a GOOD place to live.

    God bless Canada.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by Zinho on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:23PM (2 children)

      by Zinho (759) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:23PM (#630575)

      Is that the link you intended? It doesn't appear to match your post...

      --
      "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
      • (Score: 2) by Zinho on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:29PM (1 child)

        by Zinho (759) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @08:29PM (#630580)

        Never mind, I figured it out. It took me a bit to realize that the Jeph Jacques was the author of the comic you linked.

        "about" page from the comic [questionablecontent.net]

        --
        "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:23PM

          by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:23PM (#630671) Journal

          Yeah, laziness hit hard. I was going to lin

          --
          --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:21PM (8 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:21PM (#630615) Journal

    That solution starts with rounding up all the rent-seeking greedheads and injecting them with several random diseases each, then letting them die off and seizing their assets. Then joining the rest of the civilized world in single-payer healthcare.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:02PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:02PM (#630658)

      And look at that! You've already got laudatory upmods, despite calling for the forcible transmission of disease just to meet your political ends.

      Well, what else can you expect from people who explicitly reject the philosophy of voluntary trade?

      It's worth noting that Fascism sprung from Marxism, when Marxist predictions failed to materialize. You gotta force in the new paradigm by hook or by crook.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:13PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:13PM (#630663)

        Tongue in check is real.

        At least she isn’t illogical.

        Save the babies from evil abortion (unwanted babies are great for society!) so they can die in elementary to college due to gun toting kids (who probably didn’t feel loved).

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:25PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:25PM (#630675)

          It's only tongue-in-cheek because you say it is.

          It's not even defensive in nature; it's a totally aggressive point of view.

          • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:32PM (1 child)

            by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:32PM (#630679) Journal

            Look on the bright side; any attempt to give *you* AIDS via injection would fail, either because the viruses would refuse to work on you out of professional courtesy, or they'd be so disgusted they'd kill themselves rather than remain in your body.

            --
            I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:08PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:08PM (#630696)

              AC is so bitter that your little quip gets better traction than their long diatribes.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:43AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:43AM (#630799)

        Marx described an international brotherhood of workers.
        "Workers of the world, unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains."

        That you managed to twist that into nationalism, racism, and collusion between Oligarchical Capitalists and government shows exactly how stupid you are.

        -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:03PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:03PM (#630939)

          You can scoff at me all you want, but that doesn't change history. Fascism sprung from Marxism.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:36PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:36PM (#631006)

            Doubling down on ignorance. And you wonder why people downmod you...