Amazon is taking on health care’s most vexing challenge — the chronically ill

Amazon’s ambitions in health care are now clear: It not only wants to fundamentally change treatment of U.S. patients, it wants a large chunk of the $370 billion market for selling and distributing their prescription drugs.

The company’s acquisition of the home delivery pharmacy PillPack is entirely separate from its venture with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to improve and lower the cost of care for the companies’ 1 million employees.

But taken together, the two initiatives realize the worst fears of many of the health care industry’s entrenched incumbents — that Amazon is making an aggressive play in portions of the market that many consumers, investors, and health industry specialists see as ripe for disruption.

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