Can Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett Save Health Care?
The cost of providing health insurance to a company's employees grew nearly 7% last year, extending not only a long-standing streak of rising costs, but accelerating that trend. Indeed, between 2002 and 2016, the average amount of money a family of four spent on health care each year grew a whopping 180%.
Putting it bluntly: Regardless of who's paying the bill (and how), health care has become expensive.
It's not surprising, then, that corporations that are at least partially responsible for providing employees with health insurance are finally pushing back against an industry that has had little incentive to contain costs.
What is surprising is the collection of strange bedfellows that are uniting to stop unbridled health-care costs: Amazon.com (, $1,450.89), Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (, $214.38) and mega-bank JPMorgan Chase (, $115.67). The trio just announced a joint venture intended to "check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes."
