The Briefing: The Challenge Facing Amazon M.D.

It’s getting harder to think of any aspect of American life that Amazon isn’t now trying to serve. The company ticked the health care box on Wednesday by unveiling Amazon Care, an on-demand health care business, designed as a service companies can offer their employees. Amazon’s description of the service makes it sound like a much-needed addition to the health care industry in the U.S. Whether people are ready to get their health care from Amazon, though, is debatable.

Amazon doesn’t even seem to know the answer to that. At the end of Amazon’s blog post describing Amazon Care, a survey asks “Based on this article, how do you view Amazon?”—with the answers ranging from “very positive” to “very negative.” Is offering health care meant to improve people’s attitudes toward the company? Or is Amazon worried consumers will see this as a bridge too far in the array of businesses it now operates in?