WOW: Amazon, Berkshire, JP Morgan forming health care company

[dblack]

Their 'Big Plan' is merely to dump most people from real coverage and pursue the most profitable course for themselves. I don't know why people think the likes of Buffet and Bezos and their ilk are 'enlightened progressives' or something; they aren't, they're entirely out for themselves. This means only insuring the wealthy and offering them boutique medicine, and dumping 'everybody else' on the state and federal coffers.

You seem to be missing the point. This is not about depriving people of health care. It's about making maximizing dependency. It's about controlling people, specifically labor.

You seem to be delusional and not familiar with how the scams work.

Enlighten me. I'm open to other ideas, but what I see here is the final move in something corporate interests have been pushing for for a long time.

I haven't heard much about it since high school, but I remember learning about how businesses on the US frontier would set up abusive power over their employees by offering them all of their needs via a "company store". Which of course happily extended credit. They deliberately keep their employees in debt to the company - unable to leave and unable to pay off their debts. Sounds like what Amazon and Buffet are up to.

 

[Vandalshandle]

Holy crap, this could get interesting. Bezos, Buffett and Dimon are all sharp Democrats. Let's see what they come up with.

Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Link Up to Form New Health-Care Company
..

All of them love sweatshop labor and the companies who operate them. The one thing they aren't going to do is insure workers themselves. They specialize in screwing workers over.

They are all out to get you, Pic!

 

[dblack]

We appreciate you Obama (and the rest of the morons who create regulations that make it harder for us to get competition).

Insurers are among a handful of industries, including Major League Baseball, that have a special exemption from federal antitrust laws.

Of course they do.

 

[dblack]

I think people are finally waking up to the realization that employer provided, group health "insurance" isn't insurance at all. it's employer-provided health care.

 

[MadChemist]

I think people are finally waking up to the realization that employer provided, group health "insurance" isn't insurance at all. it's employer-provided health care.

And it is great...if you have it.

Of course, the nice thing is that THEY DO INCENTIVIZE you to be healthy.

We can get several hundred dollars in rebates if we meet certain criteria.

 

[dblack]

I think people are finally waking up to the realization that employer provided, group health "insurance" isn't insurance at all. it's employer-provided health care.

And it is great...if you have it.

Of course, the nice thing is that THEY DO INCENTIVIZE you to be healthy.

We can get several hundred dollars in rebates if we meet certain criteria.

Heh.. incentivize? They practically own you.

 

[MarathonMike]

It isn't clear to me if they are just eliminating the middleman for prescription drugs or if they are ponying up the big bucks to truly be the insurer. It would certainly motivate them to reject any job applicant who has a pre-existing condition or even if they 'appear' unhealthy.

 

[Vandalshandle]

It isn't clear to me if they are just eliminating the middleman for prescription drugs or if they are ponying up the big bucks to truly be the insurer. It would certainly motivate them to reject any job applicant who has a pre-existing condition or even if they 'appear' unhealthy.

I kind of hate to break it to you, Mike, but as a career health insurance underwriter, I routinely told employers to avoid hiring people with certain medical conditions, and I have been doing it for 50 years. Got a child with Downs syndrome? Tell him to keep walking.

 

[dblack]

It isn't clear to me if they are just eliminating the middleman for prescription drugs or if they are ponying up the big bucks to truly be the insurer. It would certainly motivate them to reject any job applicant who has a pre-existing condition or even if they 'appear' unhealthy.

Yup.

 

[dblack]

It isn't clear to me if they are just eliminating the middleman for prescription drugs or if they are ponying up the big bucks to truly be the insurer. It would certainly motivate them to reject any job applicant who has a pre-existing condition or even if they 'appear' unhealthy.

I kind of hate to break it to you, Mike, but as a career health insurance underwriter, I routinely told employers to avoid hiring people with certain medical conditions, and I have been doing it for 50 years. Got a child with Downs syndrome? Tell him to keep walking.

Makes sense. If we're asking employers to provide us with health care, as well as a salary, then they have a vested interest in avoiding people with health problems.

 

[OnePercenter]

Please notice this is big money.

It takes big money to form this kind of company and work in this industry.

Thanks to the government.

We appreciate you Obama (and the rest of the morons who create regulations that make it harder for us to get competition).

Competition was out when Reagan deregulated the HMO act.

 

[MadChemist]

I think people are finally waking up to the realization that employer provided, group health "insurance" isn't insurance at all. it's employer-provided health care.

And it is great...if you have it.

Of course, the nice thing is that THEY DO INCENTIVIZE you to be healthy.

We can get several hundred dollars in rebates if we meet certain criteria.

Heh.. incentivize? They practically own you.

I guess you could look at it that way.

But I still have incentives to keep me healthy !!!

 

[dblack]

Heck, employers should provide us with food and housing as well.

 

[Picaro]

After several years of mergers and takeovers, only four companies now have some 83%-90% of health insurance market now. Last November the anti-trust division finally moved its ass to stop yet another merger of already massively huge insurance companies, but they approved the merger of an insurance company with a big drug store chain and pharmaceuticals retailers, and apparently aren't going to stop another major meger of the same sort. Guess where this leads; if you can't figure out why these pirates are suddenly interested, there is no hope for you at all re business and how it works in the Big Leagues, where one can buy politicians all day long. Keep in mind most states regulate insurance, not the Feds, so the path of least resistance should also be obvious, same as it was for the railroads in another era of robber barons.

 

[Picaro]

Heck, employers should provide us with food and housing as well.

Well, slaves certainly fared better than the waves of immigrants in the northern states did, for sure, so you're not far off the mark here, whether you realize or not.

 

[Mac1958]

Yikes.

Maybe we can all just hope that some positive innovations come from this.

That's what happens when smart people choose to -- wait for it -- "cooperate".
.

 

[dblack]

Yikes.

Maybe we can all just hope that some positive innovations come from this.

That's what happens when smart people choose to -- wait for it -- "cooperate".
.

The best thing that could come of this is people finally realizing that depending on your employer (or your government, or any third party) to supply you with your needs means they have power over you. And when people have power over you, they use it.

 

[dblack]

After several years of mergers and takeovers, only four companies now have some 83%-90% of health insurance market now.

B,b,but health insurance is one of the most heavily regulated industries! How did such a thing happen? :mock_surprise:

 

[frigidweirdo]

Holy crap, this could get interesting. Bezos, Buffett and Dimon are all sharp Democrats. Let's see what they come up with.

Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Link Up to Form New Health-Care Company
..

If they do it not for profit, then great. The health insurance companies cost 7% of all healthcare spending. They're also responsible for helping others take from the system.

If they can cut the costs of healthcare down to a reasonable level, then they'll show just how much multi-nationals are running the show now.

 

[dblack]

If they can cut the costs of healthcare down to a reasonable level, then they'll show just how much multi-nationals are running the show now.

What do you mean? Are you suggesting that's a good thing?