Many large companies are trying to reduce health problems and costs (Vitamin D can help)

Google - extend life, reduce costs of health care

• Life extension and health improvement: Calico (Google) and perhaps Vitamin D

  • Note: A founder of Google is likely to get early-onset Parkinson's - which might be prevented by Vitamin D

• Health Insurance company still giving free Vitamin D to members who are deficient – Oct 2023

  • $375 million increase in Oscar financing by Google in Aug 2018

---

::Philanthropy::

Gates - ALL LIVES HAVE EQUAL VALUE - $33 billion

• https://www.gatesfoundation.org

• COMBAT INFECTIOUS DISEASES

• Gates funding Vitamin D studies during pregnancy to improve growth– Dec 2012

  • No benefit found when start Vitamin D supplementation at 20th week

Facebook: Curing, preventing, or managing all diseases "in our children's lifetime." $13 billion

• Mark Zuckerberg is selling up to $13 billion of Facebook stock to fund an ambitious project to end disease: Here's an early look inside Sept 2018
  • "CZI has been around now for about two and a half years, and has ballooned to 250 employees, with about half of them hailing from the technology sector"
• https://www.chanzuckerberg.com/ "Chan Zuckerberg Initiative"

---

::Employees/Employers::

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan - reduce drug/healthcare costs for 1.2 million employees

• Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Team Up to Try to Disrupt Health Care NYT Jan 30, 2018

• Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Name C.E.O. for Health Initiative NYT June 2018

  • Dr. Atul Gawande is a professor and practicing surgeon who has written extensively on health care He has a goal of reducing:
  • 1) High administrative costs — taking middlemen out of the system.
    2) Pricing failures — unit prices per product or service are too high.
    3) Misutilization — wrong care pushing out the right care.

---

Health Transformation Alliance is a consortium of 47 employers trying to lower the costs of healthcare 7 million employees

• Employer alliance is trying to reduce the cost of health care – Aug 2017

---

Comcast is reducing Healthcare Cost of their 0.2 million employees - Aug 2018

• You’ll Never Guess Which Company Is Reinventing Health Benefits
  • While deductables are typically $1500 in other companies, Comcast lowered its deductible to $250 for most of its workers

• " . . . roughly a fifth of big companies continue to see annual cost increases of more than 10 percent"

  • Comcast increases only ~1% average is 3% annual increase

• Comcast is using such companies as (https://www.accolade.com/|Accolade]to help their employees understand options