Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced last week that they would be forming a new company aimed at reducing employee health care costs. This decision was a response to what small, mid-sized and large business owners and CEOs have known for a long time: The private insurance system is strangling the U.S. economy.
As the founder and CEO of a mid-sized company that employs 180 people in the United States, I know this well. In 2018, we will pay $2.8 million to insure our workers and their families. Year after year, we have wrestled with the costs of our health care plans. And despite trying every trick in the book, our per-employee costs have tripled over the past 14 years.
