Amazon and Warren Buffett to create 'reasonable cost' healthcare company

• Business giants partner with JP Morgan to help employees find care
• 'The ballooning costs act as a hungry tapeworm on the US economy'

Amazon is diving into healthcare, teaming up with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the New York bank JP Morgan to create a company that helps their US employees find quality care "at a reasonable cost" and tackle the "hungry tapeworm on the American economy".

The business giants offered few details on Tuesday and said the project was in the early planning stage. But the move from Amazon, which has long eyed the US's enormous health market, sent shares in health insurance companies and pharmacy chains into a tailspin.