In partnership with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the e-commerce mega-company would begin working to create a new healthcare company with the purpose of “reducing healthcare’s burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families.”
The three collaborators said the company would be rooted in “technology solutions” that will provide a simplified and transparent mode of healthcare. The announcement also said the company would be free from “profit-making incentives.” That caused some to speculate if the new company would be an explicit nonprofit, but Amazon wouldn’t elaborate any further on that particular detail.
The initiative is still in its early planning stages, but the move is already affecting the broader healthcare industry. UnitedHealth’s stock was down 7 percent in pre-market trading, and Anthem and Cigna each fell 5 percent. (h/t BusinessWire)
