Amazon, Warren Buffett and JP Morgan team up to create an innovative project in the welfare field. The three giants of the US economy will create an independent and non-profit insurance company with the aim of reducing welfare costs and improving services.
A mission for which new technologies will be developed that can increase the transparency and effectiveness of US healthcare. The new company will initially be intended to take care of the American employees of the three giants, who number 1,2 million, but it cannot be ruled out that it could have far wider ramifications.
“The enormous growth in healthcare costs is a hungry tapeworm within the American economy – thundered Buffett, number one at Berkshire Hathaway – We don't ask ourselves this problem having ready answers. But neither do we accept it as inevitable."
Numbers in hand, the Oracle of Omaha is right. Health care spending in the United States rose 4,3% to $3.300 trillion in 2016, accounting for 18% of GDP.
The announcement represents a real challenge to the traditional American insurance system and confirms Amazon's lunge in the healthcare world. For months there have been rumors about the entry of Bezos' colossus into the sector and its possible effects. Indiscretions which, according to analysts, resulted in the 69 billion dollar offer by CVS pharmacies on Aetna insurance. Meanwhile, Amazon has already obtained licenses in several states for the wholesale distribution of medicines.
The announcement of JP Morgan, Amazon and Berkshire (among the most valuable companies on Wall Street, with a combined capitalization of 1.600 trillion dollars) hit health insurers hard in the negotiations before the opening of the markets: UnitedHealth loses 7,1%, Aetna 3,7% and Cigna 5,1%.
