Americans pay more for health care than other developed countries. Health care spending accounts for 16 percent of the economy in the US, while the OECD average is 8.9 percent. Amazon is looking to disrupt this paradigm. Amazon has teamed with Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway and financial services giant JPMorgan Chase on a new effort aimed at serving the health care needs of their US-based employees.
The companies are forming a new, not-for-profit organization that will focus on creating “technology solutions that will provide US employees and their families with simplified, high-quality, and transparent health care at a reasonable cost.”
In a statement, Jeff Bezos acknowledged that the US health care system is “complex,” and said the companies are “open-eyed about the degree of difficulty.”
“Hard as it might be, reducing health care’s burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort,” Bezos added. “Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation.”
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