"The ballooning costs of (health care) act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Buffett said in a prepared statement. It was not clear if the ultimate goal involves expanding the ambitious project beyond Amazon, Berkshire or JPMorgan. Health-care costs for companies routinely rise faster than inflation and eat up bigger portions of their budgets. Only 50 per cent of companies with three to 49 employees offered coverage last year, according to the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation. Amazon, Berkshire and JP Morgan say they can bring their scale and "complementary expertise" to what they describe as a long-term campaign.

Source: CBC News January 30, 2018 14:21 UTC