US Regulators Urged to Block Amazon’s ‘Terrifying’ Purchase of One Medical

Privacy, antitrust, and other advocates on Thursday sounded the alarm over Amazon's purchase of boutique healthcare company One Medical, a move that one group said "opens a terrifying new frontier in surveillance of Americans by private corporations."

"You don't need to play glitchy PC games to experience the cyberpunk capitalist dystopia. The real world got real bad, and we didn't stop it."

CNBC reports Amazon is acquiring One Medical, a San Francisco-based private health services provider with 188 locations whose 767,000 members pay around $200 in annual concierge fees, for about $3.9 billion, or $18 per share.

"We think healthcare is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention," Neil Lindsay, Amazon's senior vice president of health services, told The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon multi-billionaire founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos.

However, Barry Lynn, executive director of the Open Markets Institute (OMI), an anti-monopoly think tank, asserted in a statement that "U.S. enforcement agencies should block this deal."

"They should also move swiftly to establish a basic set of rules to protect every corner of America's health industry from the power of the manipulation platforms," he added.

If the One Medical deal is completed, it would mark Amazon's third-biggest acquisition after Whole Foods ($13.7 billion) and MGM Studios ($8.5 billion).

While One Medical CEO Amir Dan Rubin said the Amazon acquisition presents "an immense opportunity to make the healthcare experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable," critics warned of the dangers to public health in a nation that spends far more per capita on healthcare than other developed countries while experiencing overall inferior outcomes.

"This will be a blow to the fight for universal healthcare," opined journalist Aaron T. Rose. "Imagine all the money Amazon will pour into lobbying to stop Medicare for All now that they have a dog in the fight."

Others expressed concerns about the threats to privacy and competition. OMI's Lynn wrote:

Amazon's takeover of One Medical is the latest shot in a terrifying new stage in the business model of the world's largest corporations. The deal will expand Amazon's ability to collect the most intimate and personal of information about individuals, in order to track, target, manipulate, and exploit people in ever more intrusive ways.
Amazon is not the only dangerous actor here. Google's recent takeover of the fitness tracker Fitbit poses similar threats. Every American should stand against this radical extension of corporate power into our lives. In addition to manipulating how we talk to one another and do business with one another, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple are moving fast to manipulate our perceptions of our own health and well-being.

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent reversal of Roe v. Wade and Republican-led states' moves to criminalize people who have, perform, or "abet" abortions, reproductive rights advocates feared the implications of Amazon's purchase.

"One Medical currently has healthcare locations in Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and Arizona—all states we can expect will prosecute pregnant people for abortions or adverse pregnancy outcomes," tweeted Robyn Swirling, founder and executive director of the progressive advocacy group Works in Progress. "So you can maybe see why Amazon having their medical data is, perhaps, not going to be safe!"

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