Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon issued a content-lite press release today, promising to work together to lower healthcare cost for their employees.
Folksy Buffett neatly summed up the nation's healthcare crisis by saying ballooning costs "act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy."
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The pledge of the Three Amigos of Healthcare bombed on Wall Street, driving down sharply the shares of healthcare stocks.
The press release has a "Trust Us" ring to it. It has zippo information about what the grand plan (or any plan) is for healthcare reform.
Rather it contains bromides such as the three companies "will pursue this objective through an independent company that is free from profit-making initiatives and constraints."
The initial focus of the new company will be on technology solutions that will provide employees and their families with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost."
The release concedes the healthcare reform push is in "it's early planning stages."
A "longer-term management team, headquarters location [Amazon has plenty of good intel on HQ sites, gleaned from its shakedown of US/Canadian cites falling over themselves in the online retailer's second HQ sweepstakes] and key operational details will be communicated in due course."
The announcement from the Three Amigos of Healthcare scored favorable coverage in important media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal ("Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Join Forces to Pare Health-Care Costs"), Financial Times ("Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Shakeup Healthcare") and New York Times ("Amazon and 2 Other Firms to Disrupt Health Care").
Why not?
President Trump is clueless when it comes to healthcare, offering the same old empty pledge of a big, beautiful plan that everybody can afford, while Republicans continue their quixotic quest to kill ObamaCare.
A detail-free press release from three powerful business executives pledging to slice the country's $3.3T health bill is the only game in town.
Sad.
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