[Archive] Thoughts on “Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan” Teaming up to disrupt healthcare

Danny Jooyoung Kim
2 min readMay 24, 2018

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From earlier this year:

This is quite interesting. Some things to note:

The three companies said the initiative, which is in the early planning stages, would be a long-term effort “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.”

→ the companies further underline the frustrations their employees face navigating the current healthcare system and highlight the current system’s “inefficiency and the lack of innovation” as their motivation to start this initiative.

It’s interesting to also note Bezos’s following comment:

“Hard as it (entering into the complex arena of healthcare) might be, reducing health care’s burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation.”

→in past few months, there were a lot of speculations on whether Amazon would enter the healthcare market or not. Bezos’s comment here seems to suggest that Amazon will enter the market with a long-term vision (and appropriate resources/capital to match that vision). The joining of JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire on this plan further portrays how this game (The big 3 vs. existing players) might be played out: Amazon is now stepping in the game officially, and it brought along some deep pockets to fund the war. In other words, Amazon is in it to win it.

In response, “Shares of UnitedHealth were down 5 percent in premarket trading, while Anthem’s were down 3.5 percent, erasing many of the gains such companies have made over the past 12 months.”

→the other players are intuitively sensing that the winter is coming. And it’s coming fast and strong. Ending thoughts: Having disrupted an array of industries ranging from publishing to retail in the past, Amazon is now eyeing on redefining the broken healthcare system/industry. Considering Amazon’s history of innovation and seasoned experience of JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire, I believe there’s something promising (and quite frankly, threatening to the existing players) in development here.

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Danny Jooyoung Kim

Pharmacist by training. Designer at heart. Investor in action | Currently with PillPack and Contrary Capital. kimdanny.com