Well, if that is their intent, I am unimpressed. I can see them shaving some percentage-points off some costs here and there, but I don’t see anything particularly radical. Even if they go full-on managed-care, that’s still nothing particularly novel (Kaiser started contracting with and eventually owning hospitals because he wanted to provide his employees health care as an incentive).
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan End Health-Care Venture Haven
A high-profile health-care venture launched by three of the world’s biggest and best-known companies— Amazon. AMZN -2.38% com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B -1.94% and JPMorgan Chase JPM -1.16% & Co.—is folding two years after its founding, the company said Monday.
Haven Health, originally sparked by an idea from JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, sought to reduce health-care costs for hundreds of thousands of workers at the three companies by pooling resources and technology. Haven’s stated aim at its 2018 launch was to provide transparent health care for employees of the companies at lower costs.
It plans to cease operations in February without having achieved those aims.
I agree with everything there except the last sentence which is total BS. But under our socialized medicine, I think the government does issue guidelines and doctors follow them although they are allowed to petition for exceptions, which will usually be allowed.
Let me give an example from my own life. When I had a case of galloping angina 50 years ago, it was treated with a combination of bed rest, tranquilizers (for a month or two) and beta blockers. Fifty years later I am still here. When my uncle who taught biochem in a US medical school mentioned the case to one of his colleagues, a cardiologist, he was astonished that I hadn’t gotten a bypass. But I’ve done fine without it. At least two friends had bypasses that did not turn out well. In one case, they had trouble with restarting his heart and he suffered brain damage. He was in the middle of writing a book on his life’s work and couldn’t finish it and was also forced to take early retirement since his teaching suffered. The other one just never really recovered and died about 15 years later in a nursing home. His personality had undergone a drastic change.
These are just anecdotal but illustrate that too much care is not always better.