Mike Wuerthele
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase have announced plans to develop a program to pare down health care costs initially for their own employees, but with a suggestion that it could expand the effort to the rest of Americans in the future.
Few details of the program are publicly known at the moment. All three firms note that they have done little prior to the announcement beyond assigning an executive in charge at each company, but the releases accompanying the news say that "technology solutions" developed by a stand-alone company will be applied first to simplify health care.
"The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy. Our group does not come to this problem with answers," Berkshire Hathaway Chief Executive Warren Buffet saidt. "But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country's best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes."
While limited at first to the 1.1 million employees spanning the three companies, there are suggestions that the effort will expand to the rest of the country, should it prove successful.
"Our people want transparency, knowledge and control when it comes to managing their healthcare," JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said. "The three of our companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans."
Rumors have swirled for years regarding Amazon's entry into the market, either as a vendor for inexpensive prescription drugs, or as part of a larger role.
"The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty," Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said. "Hard as it might be, reducing healthcare's burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort."
The spin-off company responsible for deploying the technical solutions at first will be run by Amazon Senior Vice President Beth Galetti, Todd Combs from Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Managing Director Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold.
At present, it isn't clear if external solutions like Apple's health record initiative, or Apple Watch data, will be integrated into any solution accepted by the company. Regardless, the move by Amazon and the finance companies may open acceptance to disruption of existing healthcare solutions to more people and organizations, instead of Apple having to try to pry open doors itself.
AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
85 Comments
I don't think I'd want my employer to be my healthcare provider. Especially one known for its mastery of mining data. I'd certainly want the strongest of firewalls between the healthcare side and the HR side.
I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! I’ve been saying for years, ‘get rid of this horrendous ACA, deregulate healthcare and businesses will provide answers’. I assumed Walmart, Amazon, Google/Alphabet and Apple would be among those jumping in and Bezos just made the first move. Expect Amazon stock to be richly rewarded and Apple stock to be kicked in the teeth for their timidity.
Personally, I’d be more comfortable trusting Apple with my healthcare, but Amazon gets the first mover advantage... again.
It has happened before. The original Kaiser health plan was intended for employees of Kaiser Steel company in California. It has morphed into one of the largest and best health care systems.
This really could swing either way - companies will have a far greater incentive to focus on preventative health care, which is far more cost effective that the treatments cost years or decades later (smoking, sugar intake, lack of exercise, regular checkups). Also if they can do something about the insane cost of healthcare in the US, than can only be a good thing. Insurance companies have never addressed that.
On the other hand, your employer knowing everything about your health might not be a good thing. You can see a future where compensation, promotion and other decisions could be made with health considerations in mind, or even decisions about lay-offs. Employees could be more dependent than ever on their employers (COBRA isn't great but it can give you a cushion) so losing your job or quitting because of some unacceptable factor at work, would cost you more than ever.
Of course, the fact that this is even something they need to consider doing, because healthcare in this county is such a freaking mess, is the real tragedy.