Not even the joint strength of three colossi like Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Dimon has managed to improve on the most inefficient health care in the world (Next to Brazil), the American health system. A few days ago Haven Healthcare, The company founded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan to explore new health pathways in the American country, he announced that it would cease to exist in February.
“Haven will end its operations in late February. Haven’s team progressed in exploring a wide range of solutions in healthcare, As well as in the testing new ways to make Primary Care more accessible, communicate the benefits of insurance and get it to improve access to affordable prescription drugs, ”the company said in a statement.
“In the future,” he continues, “Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase will leverage this knowledge and continue to collaborate informally to design programs tailored to the specific needs of our population and the location of employees.” Behind this optimistic tone, the reality is that Haven has failed to achieve his goal and the American health care system is one of the most inefficient in the world, According to the report he makes Bloomberg.
John S. Toussaint, CEO of Catalysis, analyzes in Harvard Business Review‘The reasons that have led Haven to disappear. This specialist provides three reasons why not even these three almighty have been able to change things. The first is “insufficient market power”. “Despite its 1.2 million employees, the three companies that formed Haven still do they did not have enough market power to get lower prices from suppliers“, he argues.
Second, Toussaint attributes this defeat to “Evil incentives“From his point of view.”the U.S. health care system focuses on treating diseases rather than preventing them... Since insurers and suppliers make huge profits in the existing system, they have little reason to change and accept the risks of a fixed price capitation system. “
Finally, Toussaint attributes to the bad time the project was born and developed. The covid pandemic has made suppliers dedicate themselves exclusively to serving this front. The focus of attention has been taken by the coronavirus. As a result, after these three years of Haven’s existence, American health care remains the same.
The United States wastes 25% of what has been invested in health care
The American healthcare model is extremely complex, and very different from the Spanish one. In the United States about 50 percent of the population has access to health resources through the medical insurance provided by the company for which they work. The benefits of each insurance depend on what each company determines.
20 percent of the population goes to the hospital or health center through Medicaid, Funded by the states and the federal government. Lbenefits vary greatly by social group or state. Close to 10 percent of the population does not have any type of insurance. These are 30 million people who are not protected. As a rule, anyone who goes to the Emergency Services will be treated, but sooner or later will have to pay.
The US health care system is also much improved in terms of value for money. According to a study published in the prestigious medical journal JAMA, The United States wastes between $ 760 and $ 935 million annually, 25 percent of its total healthcare investment.
In addition, between 102 and 165 billion could be saved in health care, and per sobretratamiento or low-value care go to the trash about 100 billion.