Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amazon Partners With Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan To Tackle 'Ballooning' Employee Health Care Costs
The Washington Post: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway And JP Morgan Chase Join Forces To Tackle Employees’ Health Care Costs
Three major employers, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase, announced Tuesday they were partnering to create an independent company aimed at reining in health care costs for their employees. The independent company would be jointly led by executives from all three companies and would be focused on technology that could increase transparency and simplify health care, according to the joint announcement. It will be free from the need to deliver a profit. (Johnson, 1/30)
The New York Times: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway And JPMorgan Team Up To Disrupt Health Care
The three companies provided few details about the new entity, other than saying it would initially focus on technology to provide simplified, high-quality health care for their employees and their families, and at a reasonable cost. They said the initiative, which is in the early planning stages, would be a long-term effort “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.” (Wingfield, 1/30)
CNBC: Amazon, Berkshire And JPMorgan Chase To Partner On Health Care
"The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett said in a statement. "Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country's best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes." (Cox, 1/30)
Bloomberg: Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Move To Target Health-Care Costs
The health-care industry has been nervously eyeing the prospect of competition from Amazon for months. While the new company created by Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan would be for their U.S. staff only, this is the first big move by Amazon into the industry. The new collaboration could pressure profits for middlemen in the U.S. health-care supply chain. (Tracer and Somayaji, 1/30)
