Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#81

Post by prklmn » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:34 PM UTC

odonnellryan wrote: post #62

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #53

It's not just the cost. It's the incredible inefficiency of the operations, and, the gerrymandering of coverage. Under the ACA, I had to choose between allowing my family to continue to see their lifetime care givers, or, paying in network rates, for the full year, because the insurance company I chose gave me incorrect information when they were trying to get my business (my wife is less kind in evaluating their mot…

I feel Buffet and Bezos have the technical capacity and certainly the capital to tackle this issue. They can't fix the entire HC market, but they can have a great start.

Buffet is the same guy that "fixed" other insurance markets by driving them away from mutual ownership to privately owned companies - a massive wealth transfer away from the common man. He shouldn't be commenting on tapeworms.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#82

Post by tdees40 » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

prklmn wrote: post #81

odonnellryan wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel Buffet and Bezos have the technical capacity and certainly the capital to tackle this issue. They can't fix the entire HC market, but they can have a great start.

Buffet is the same guy that "fixed" other insurance markets by driving them away from mutual ownership to privately owned companies - a massive wealth transfer away from the common man. He shouldn't be commenting on tapeworms.

I'm genuinely fascinated by this comment. You're saying that mutuals offer lower prices (not typically true), but they were out-competed by private companies? I'm not sure that makes sense. In my sector (life insurance), there's no real pattern to mutual vs public company pricing, but maybe it's different in auto insurance, for instance.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#83

Post by 013a » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

ihsw2 wrote: post #72

pmart123 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps Vanguard is an example of a mass mutual company that owes part of its success through its formation due to its ability to pass cost savings back to its customers in the form of lower fund fees?

Vanguard took decades to gain any traction and it was managed well enough to ensure it didn't prematurely burn out, and not only that but Jack Bogle spent his entire life evangelizing low-cost in an environment where "cost is no object" was a common mantra. Not only that but the healthcare industry has extraordinarily high financial and legal barriers to entry.

> Managed well enough

Unlike Amazon and Berkshire, two of the best managed companies humanity has ever created?

> Extraordinarily high financial and legal barriers to entry

Unlike financial companies?

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#84

Post by maxxxxx » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

odonnellryan wrote: post #62

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #53

It's not just the cost. It's the incredible inefficiency of the operations, and, the gerrymandering of coverage. Under the ACA, I had to choose between allowing my family to continue to see their lifetime care givers, or, paying in network rates, for the full year, because the insurance company I chose gave me incorrect information when they were trying to get my business (my wife is less kind in evaluating their mot…

I feel Buffet and Bezos have the technical capacity and certainly the capital to tackle this issue. They can't fix the entire HC market, but they can have a great start.

All involved players are mainly interested in lining their own pockets. The question if this will come at the expense of patients or other players in health care.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#85

Post by ballenarosada » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

avocadoLife wrote: post #35

I always think that it's only a matter of time before some company with vast capital (looking at you Apple) finds their own way to set up a city/country with their own ecosystem (healthcare, transport etc.), with less bureaucracy and more efficiently.

If that happened, would libertarians begin to regard unpaid surplus labor as theft?

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#86

Post by lukeqsee » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

I read it as "Apple, Berkshire and JPMorgan" at first, and I was very excited to see such a customer-first company finally taking on healthcare.

Then I read the top comment and saw Bezos. Oh. It's Amazon.

I do not want my medical provider and experience to be optimized to the point of insanity.

Healthcare needs to be fixed, but I'm pretty sure these three companies will create a monster worse than the one we currently endure. (Profits or not.)

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#87

Post by yeukhon » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

I feel there will be a series of HC acquisitions ranging from unicorn startups to major HC providers. I don’t have to name the qualified startups, they are too well known... Great time to join an insurance startup!!!

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#88

Post by ensignavenger » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #53

It's not just the cost. It's the incredible inefficiency of the operations, and, the gerrymandering of coverage. Under the ACA, I had to choose between allowing my family to continue to see their lifetime care givers, or, paying in network rates, for the full year, because the insurance company I chose gave me incorrect information when they were trying to get my business (my wife is less kind in evaluating their mot…

You should sue them for fraud.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#89

Post by nabla9 » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

ihsw2 wrote: post #72

pmart123 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps Vanguard is an example of a mass mutual company that owes part of its success through its formation due to its ability to pass cost savings back to its customers in the form of lower fund fees?

Vanguard took decades to gain any traction and it was managed well enough to ensure it didn't prematurely burn out, and not only that but Jack Bogle spent his entire life evangelizing low-cost in an environment where "cost is no object" was a common mantra. Not only that but the healthcare industry has extraordinarily high financial and legal barriers to entry.

>extraordinarily high financial and legal barriers to entry.

If there is a company with enough muscle to force themselves into the business, it's Berkshire.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#90

Post by 013a » Tue, Jan 30, 2018, 2:43 PM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #12

Here's what this is about. Large successful companies contract out their health insurance and care to external companies. Most of those companies are profit centers- they provide a service, but they take a very large profit on it. Much of that profit is just waste- it's money that goes to people who aren't innovating, or providing value, just acting as gatekeepers (note: this is just my opinion, not provable fact). C…

Insurance companies, by and large, are gate keepers to capital. The "best" have a lot of highly innovate algorithms, machine learning, and data collection, but they're all designed to maximize the profit of the company by accurately pricing premiums. An accurately priced premium means customers who don't their services less pay less; in effect, they're using data to increase premiums for the customers who actually use their service, while increasing revenue in order to fund their massive, inefficient bureaucracy.