Amazon, JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway are starting a new healthcare company. I'm really curious to see what kind of difference they can make and I'm not really buying the not for profit angle. (Three of the most profitable companies are getting together and they aren't worried about profit?) It also doesn't really align with what they are good at, but they do have tons of cash to throw at it and I'm sure they can hire some really great people. 

A few years ago I was briefly involved with a company that was started by Dr's who thought they could do insurance the right way. The management of the company i worked for said they were all super smart and they wouldn't be investing their own money if they didn't think it would work. Six months later they were out of cash and shut down. I'm curious to see if this ends the same way or if they can actually make some effective  changes to the current healthcare system. 

https://www.vox.com/technology/2018/1/31/16950500/amazon-health-care-jp-morgan-chase-warren-buffett

Doctors are generally terrible at business and treasury functions, so I can understand they could not make it go.

The triumvirate of Chase/Berskshire/Amazon forming a new entity to handle health care for their 1 million plus employees could undoubtedly make sense, and work out.  It would not be much different than business pooling together through their associations to form a quasi-insurance market.  My guess is this will be some type of self-funded situation with stop-loss amounts being reinsured.  But with the elimination of several layers of add-ons and mark ups, plus having pricing power of a sizeable group, I am sure they can ultimately reduce costs.  

If we can rid the nation, completely, of the disastrous obamaKare legislation and regulations, we can easily begin to lower costs in any number of ways, with this latest maneuver by the Chase/BH/Amazon being just a starting point in providing one template.

I hope the free market actually gets this stuff going.

posted by FatHobbit

A few years ago I was briefly involved with a company that was started by Dr's who thought they could do insurance the right way. The management of the company i worked for said they were all super smart and they wouldn't be investing their own money if they didn't think it would work. Six months later they were out of cash and shut down.

That sounds an awful lot like private/concierge doctors - seems like it's working well for a lot of people and their doctors....although I think you end-up paying a premium to get more attention (i.e. very different from the typical office where you get 5 minutes of a doctor's time).