Wanted: Chief executive for health care startup. Must be able to reinvent an industry, reduce spiraling costs and improve care for one million people — and possibly the entire nation.
Reply to: Three billionaires.
Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are teaming up to try to solve the seemingly insurmountable mess that's the U.S. health care system. Their venture raises a crucial question of who could run such an enterprise.
Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon might seek out an executive who's run a health care organization and understands the minutiae of an insurer. Or they could pick a crisis manager who has ideas for streamlining operations, or someone adept at navigating regulatory hurdles and trimming costs. Or someone who can do it all.
"It's been a long time coming for employers to say, 'Look, health care is too expensive"' said Jonathan Gruber, who teaches economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and advised Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on their health care plans. "In some sense it's been surprising that it's taken this long."
(Related: Top AHIP officials departing)
The effort, still in the planning stages, is being spearheaded by Berkshire investment officer Todd Combs, JPMorgan managing director Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold and Amazon executive Beth Galetti.
Here are six people who might fit the bill.
1. Toby Cosgrove
Before announcing his resignation last year, Cosgrove spent more than a decade running Cleveland Clinic, the multibillion-dollar health system. He also spent about 30 years as a cardiac surgeon. He was in the running to head the Department of Veterans Affairs for Donald Trump, withdrawing at the end of 2016.
2. Karen Ignagni
