Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase to Form Healthcare Company

Jan 30, 2018 at 11:26 am by Staff


In a bid to lower costs, provide transparency and improve patient satisfaction, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase have announced their intention to form an independent, non-profit healthcare company.

"The U.S. health care system is unsustainable in terms of its costs, and the entire debate by political leaders -- whether it is Democrats or Republicans -- has focused on repairing and replacing Obamacare and the ideological differences," said John Sculley, who formerly led Apple and Pepsi-Cola. "To have three of the most respected CEOs in the world step up and say that their companies are going to work together to focus on the real issues, of how do you make the U.S. health care system sustainable and a better delivery of service than what we have today... it's very positive."

There have been assertions that Amazon was on path to disrupt the healthcare market, as it has done in other industries, but specifics of how the company will operate are not known at this time.

"The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy. Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable," Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway chairman said in a statement.

As opposed to early rumors that Amazon was interested in the pharmaceutical market, the new company is expected to be involved in a full range of patient care.

"The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty," Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon founder said in a statement. "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. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner's mind, and a long-term orientation."