Amazon, Buffett and JPMorgan join forces on health care
Three of corporate America’s heaviest hitters — Amazon, Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase — sent a shudder through the health industry Tuesday when they announced plans to jointly create a company to provide their employees with high-quality, affordable care.
The announcement was short on details about precisely what the independent company will do. But given the three players’ outsize influence — and Amazon’s ability to transform just about everything it touches — the alliance has the potential to shake up how Americans shop for health care, and the stocks of insurance companies, drug distributors and others slumped in reaction.
“One of the messages they are sending is they’ve given up on traditional ways in which employers have tried to reduce costs or manage costs better,” said Paul Fronstin, an economist with the nonprofit Employee Benefits Research Institute.
Benefits experts speculated that this new company could create a virtual marketplace that makes shopping for health care as easy as buying a shirt on Amazon. Or it could move directly into buying prescription drugs. Or it could be a system that bypasses insurance companies altogether and contracts directly with doctors and hospitals for better deals.
Employers are up for trying almost anything to control rising health care costs, which have been consuming bigger portions of their budgets for years and burdening their employees.
WH reviewing classified GOP memo alleging surveillance abuse
WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday it will conduct a legal and national security review before President Donald Trump decides whether to release a classified memo on the Russia investigation that has sparked a political fight pitting Republicans against the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Trump has five days to object to the release of the memo, though he has signaled he wants it made public. The memo arrived at the White House on Monday evening after Republicans on the House intelligence committee brushed aside opposition from the Justice Department and voted to release it.
The four-page memo was written by Republicans on the committee, led by chairman Rep. Devin Nunes of California, a close Trump ally who has become a fierce critic of the FBI and the Justice Department.
Republicans have said the memo reveals improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation. Democrats have called it a selectively edited group of GOP talking points that attempt to distract from the committee’s own investigation into Russian meddling.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said he supports the memo’s release but doesn’t want Republicans to use it to attack special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump’s campaign was involved.
‘Person of interest’ redacted from Vegas shooting records
LAS VEGAS — Search warrant records unsealed Tuesday show that in the first hours after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Las Vegas police and FBI agents identified two people of interest along with the lone gunman, Stephen Paddock.
The name of one of those people is blacked out in the court records released to The Associated Press.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, citing police documents, identified that person as Douglas Haig. He could not immediately be reached by the AP.
The other person is Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley. She was in the Philippines at the time of the attack and is cooperating with investigators.
Authorities have said she’s not likely to face criminal charges.
Putin: Russia list is a hostile move driven by Trump foes
MOSCOW — Mixing irony with scorn, President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described a new list including Russian officials and tycoons under a U.S. sanctions law as a hostile and “stupid” move spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s political foes, but he said the Kremlin will refrain from retaliation for now.
Putin’s reluctance to criticize Trump shows that he still hopes for normalizing ties with Washington. At the same time, the U.S. move could help the Russian leader in his re-election bid in March.
Some observers warn that the blanket list of 210 names, which reads like a who’s who in Russian officialdom and business elite, could further fuel anti-Western feelings in Russia and bolster support for Putin.
Putin immediately struck that chord, pointing that those blacklisted by the U.S. control companies employing millions of Russians. He cast the U.S. move as a blow to ordinary people.
“All of us, all 146 million, have been put on some kind of list,” he said at a meeting with activists of his campaign. “Certainly, this is an unfriendly move, which further exacerbates the already strained Russia-US relations and hurts international relations as a whole.”
Budget talks bogged down by immigration, deficit concerns
WASHINGTON — A week after a standoff forced a three-day government shutdown, congressional budget talks remain bogged down by Democrats’ demands to protect “Dreamer” immigrants and GOP conservatives’ concerns about a booming federal deficit.
The deadlock is deflating hopes that lawmakers will reach a breakthrough before another shutdown deadline next week.
At risk are up to $80 billion in increases for the Pentagon this year alone, and nearly as much money for domestic programs. Almost $100 billion worth of overdue assistance for hurricane-slammed Puerto Rico, Texas, and Florida is being held up.
The knot involves about $1.2 billion in agency operating budgets for the fiscal year that began in October, along with hurricane relief, President Donald Trump’s $18 billion-plus border wall, and other odds and ends.
The measure has been hung up for months as lawmakers in both parties struggle first with a deal to increase tight limits on spending that are left over from a failed 2011 budget agreement. It takes both Republicans and Democrats to lift the limits, called spending “caps” in Capitol-speak. But talks have proceeded slowly and are now awaiting agreement on legislation to address younger immigrants currently protected from deportation under the soon-to-expire Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
By wire sources
