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Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

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Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#201

Post by vobios »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #182
bostonpete wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment seems to overlook the fact that insurance companies negotiate better rates on many (most?) services than an individual would get going at it alone. From that perspective, I think it's reasonable to say that in our current system, insurance can allow you to essentially avoid high prices even for things that are predictable/regular.

This is not clear, in that "concierge doctors" or cash only doctors to some, seem to have rates that are lower than what the insurance companies claim they are billed for a service. That would suggest they are lousy negotiators.

For the doctor, a great benefit of being cash only is you don't have to do billing, a non-trivial task.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#202

Post by whoami_nr »

losteverything wrote: post #158

When i think of disruption i think of uber. Rides where none could happen before. What will their disruption be? How about delinking insurance to healthcare. Let me buy healthcare the day i need it. And nothing the day after i dont. No more having healthy people pay for sick people: no more young pay for the old. Create something we cant imagine; like uber; like Facebook

"No more having healthy people pay for sick people"

This is actually a dangerous mentality to have in a generic sense. However, having a healthcare system where rich(er) people bear the brunt of the poor actually makes sense and has even worked out well in some countries in EU.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#203

Post by praneshp »

lukeqsee wrote: post #86

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 currentl…

Yes, Apple is better. They'll slowly reduce dosage as you grow older so you can get a more expensive medicine.

Amazon is much more customer-first than Apple is.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#205

Post by jen20 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #197
superhuzza wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet that health outcomes are improved with longer term patient-physician relationships - Imagine having a new family doctor every year vs. a doctor who has known you for the last 15 years. edit: This (quite extensive and longitudinal) study would suggest that it's true. Check out the sources on the paper for other studies with similar findings: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4226774/

I'd like to see some evidence on that because I can imagine staying with one doctor might result in some conditions not being diagnosed.

Indeed - I am familiar with people who were misdiagnosed by a GP (in England) for over a decade before a visit to a different doctor yielded the correct diagnosis and treatment.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#206

Post by vzqx »

TillE wrote: post #47
kikoreis wrote: post #5

Tragedy of the commons much? It's disturbing to see corporations occupy the vacuum US policy has left here.

I do think it's very odd for any company to be making big bets on private health insurance when that system isn't going to exist in another 5-10 years. The ACA was the last stab at leaving private insurers in charge of a somewhat more regulated system, and it failed.

I think most people see ACA's failure as a failure of government regulation, not as a failure of private insurers. If anything the pendulum is going to swing the other way, and we'll see more privatized healthcare in the near future (5-10 years).

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#207

Post by donarb »

rubicon33 wrote: post #180
WisNorCan wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing wrong with “lining your own pockets” as a motivation. It is the fundamental driver of capitalism and the motivation for most entrepreneurs.

I'm as much a capitalist as the next man, but lining your pockets when you're already a billionaire, at the expense of middle class, is downright pathetic.

So you want a poor man on skid row to start a health care company?

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#208

Post by efm »

mapgrep wrote: post #176

As some other people have mentioned below, the much lauded[1] vertically integrated health provider Kaiser Permanente started this way, as the health provider caring for the workers of an enlightened large employer, Kaiser Steel, which at the time was a massive shipbuilder for the Navy and others headquartered in California with a major presence in the SF Bay Area. I was briefly covered by a Kaiser plan, and have a l…

Kaiser is also available in Colorado.

Re: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company

#209

Post by weka »

rsync wrote: post #145
weka wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same unfortunate experience that in angers me to even think about it. - I leave my last employer on July 21, 2017 - My old employer rols me off system on last day of July 2017 - On June 2017, they switch HR providers from TriNET to Namely and now the payment processor is Discovery Benefits and the Dental/Vision are now in Guardian. (So it went from Aetna to Aetna/Guardian and two other companies). Since my…

"The whole reason we get insurance is to avoid those high prices." But only for unpredictable, irregular events. Anything else is uninsurable. If someone sells you "insurance" for wellness checkups[1], regular, scheduled screenings ... or tires on your car ... you can be absolutely assured that they are taking from you as much, or more, in premiums than the cost of those services. What you are looking for is socializ…

Not sure I get you. "But only for unpredictable, irregular events." But if I went into the Doctor's office without insurance, could they turn me away? The bill would be too high?

We looked into ACA... but we thought that the process of switching over from AETNA to COBRA would be painless (weeks at most). So we just went through with it. We did not know it would end up like it has.

The operations for insurance is a daunting, slippery rope. Can you not lay some fault onto insurance and its operations?

What would you characterize this as? People slipping up? That's how the "system has always worked"? People forgetting to process paperwork needed so people can get to their appointments?

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