Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
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Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#2This sounds very promising especially considering Amazon's logistical expertise and amount of financial resources these 3 companies have.
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#3This sounds very promising especially considering Amazon's logistical expertise and amount of financial resources these 3 companies have.
Hopefully it can materialize into something that can have an impact on the healthcare industry, but it's disheartening seeing no doctors or anyone with medical expertise in the mix.
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#4> they plan to collaborate on a way to offer health-care services to their U.S. employees.
Is it clear that they will be offering these services to outside clients? Or is this just a way to keep down Healthcare costs across their organizations?
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#5Tragedy of the commons much? It's disturbing to see corporations occupy the vacuum US policy has left here.
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#6I've always wondered what's stopping someone from creating a non-profit and just having people join it in order to give the non-profit ability to negotiate lower prices.
I imagine there's a cost to set this up, but is that cost less than the marginal cost of each employee and the savings they would (presumably) receive if enough people joined?
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#7> The three companies said they plan to set up a new independent company "that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints."
I wonder if they will be setting it up as a health insurance cooperative, an organizational structure in which the primary goal is to serve its members, rather than to generate value for external shareholders: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_cooperative
It's not at all unprecedented for publicly traded companies to create cooperatives for their employees. Employee credit unions are one example.
Co-ops were part of an early proposal while the ACA was still shaping out, but unfortunately, due to pressure from for-profit health insurers, they were later shot down: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/health/policy/17talkshows....
As a fan of distributism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism, I would love to see an increase in health insurance cooperatives, and cooperatives in general. Under a cooperative structure, the members/policyholders fully own the company, so it's not beholden to outside shareholders seeking to profit at the expense of its members. Any profits that a cooperative generates are returned back to the members/policyholders in the form of lower premiums, or improvements to services.
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#8I've always wondered what's stopping someone from creating a non-profit and just having people join it in order to give the non-profit ability to negotiate lower prices. I imagine there's a cost to set this up, but is that cost less than the marginal cost of each employee and the savings they would (presumably) receive if enough people joined?
Blue Cross Blue Shield is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Doesn’t seem to help.
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#9Tragedy of the commons much? It's disturbing to see corporations occupy the vacuum US policy has left here.
>> occupy the vacuum US policy has left
Others might argue this is free market at work.
Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
#10I've always wondered what's stopping someone from creating a non-profit and just having people join it in order to give the non-profit ability to negotiate lower prices. I imagine there's a cost to set this up, but is that cost less than the marginal cost of each employee and the savings they would (presumably) receive if enough people joined?
Blue Cross Blue Shield is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. Doesn’t seem to help.
Some regional BCBS are nonprofit; Anthem BCBS isn't.
Even so, your main point is taken. There's a broad directorship problem with many non-profits, higher eduction, and mutuals. General users of these public services either have no say -or- have no reasonable way to exercise their limited authority. For example, State Farm Mutual permits its subscribers to show up in person on a particular day once per year in order to vote from a set of directors that was selected by... the previous directors. I'm curious what sort of legal/social/technology solutions could be put to use in addressing this administrative capture.