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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: 1) by turgid on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:09PM (5 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:09PM (#630605) Journal

    My wife has just been diagnosed with uterine cancer.

    That's terrible. I feel very sorry for all of you. I hope she gets the very best care.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by isostatic on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:36PM (3 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:36PM (#630707) Journal

    Thoughts and prayers?

    If you're willing and able to spend millions you'll obviously get better health care than anyone else. What's of more interest is the typical healthcare to the typical person, and the worst healthcare you can get.

    The US fails miserably in both regards.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:02AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @02:02AM (#630778)

      ...while being the most expensive on the planet.

      My question here would be "How soon did the Canuck medicos catch the uterine cancer?"
      Getting quick, easy access is a serious hurdle in USA.
      (The American Medical Association, the physicians' guild, likes to keep the number of USAian physicians low to maximize profits by limiting the number ofmedical students and medical colleges, as well as making immigrant physicians--who have been in practice for years elsewhere--jump through hoops.)

      Economist Dean Baker has criticized these anti-competitive practices.
      Why Don’t We Have Free Trade for Highly Paid Professionals in the US? [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [counterpunch.org]

      ...while in Cuba, Costa Rica, and Bolivia (places you don't think of being high on the list of "advanced"), access to medicos is easy and they get they get excellent results--both medically and monetarily--by early diagnosis and early treatment.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by turgid on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:57AM (1 child)

      by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 31 2018, @07:57AM (#630862) Journal

      There's not a lot I can do other than offer moral support in this situation so you will excuse me. I've been contributing to my own National Health Service through National Insurance since the age of 16. Mrs Turgid also had cancer that was cured through surgery, no chemo, on the NHS, for what it's worth. Luckily it was a very slow growing one.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by isostatic on Thursday February 01 2018, @11:12AM

        by isostatic (365) on Thursday February 01 2018, @11:12AM (#631420) Journal

        Absolutely. The NHS is brilliant. For a small extra fee you can go for bupa (which when added to your share of the nhs is still way less than you'd pay in the US) if you do want fancier or quicker non-emergency care, but the minimum care provided to 99.99% in the UK is way way higher than the minimum care provided to that provided to 99.99% of the US.

        There are a few people who slip through the cracks in the UK, usually mental health reasons, or misunderstanding if you're homeless (https://www.homeless.org.uk/connect/features/2017/oct/06/homelessness-and-healthcare-right-to-register), but by and large everyone is covered

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:02AM

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday January 31 2018, @04:02AM (#630815) Journal

    She just got the tests back, oh about 10-12 days ago and she's scheduled for surgery for Feb 27, so pretty quick. Would be happier with quicker, but happy anyways (Doctor said "if you're going to get cancer, this is the one you want": hysterectomy and it shouldn't come back, so no chemo just surgery.

    Just surgery...yeah. Could be worse......

    Now just gotta wait, and I hate waiting. My wifes a tough nut to break, but this is cracking her a bit.
    So...less than a month of waiting, waiting. Nice thing, like I said, is we don't have to worry about where the money's going to come from. Just gotta worry about keeping my son from hurting her, lol (he's just clumsy in his movements).

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---