By: Chris Isidore
Amazon is partnering with Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, to try to address one of the nation’s thorniest and priciest problems — soaring health care costs.
The three companies unveiled an as yet unnamed company to give their U.S. workers and families a better option on health insurance. The statement said the new company will be “free from profit-making incentives and constraints.”
As of a year ago, the three companies had 840,000 global employees between them, though they did not break down how many of them are in the U.S. As of now, the companies are concentrating on a product for their own employees and family members, not a product to offer to other companies.
“The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” said Buffett. “We share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country’s best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes.”