Jamie Dimon: Amazon-JPMorgan-Berkshire health venture will 'start small'

Alyssa Rege -

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC the company's joint venture with Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway is focused on building out its team and strategy to tackle skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Mr. Dimon spoke with CNBC's "Squawk Box" program while attending the World Economic Forum, which is taking place Jan. 22-25 in Davos, Switzerland. He said that while the U.S. has "the best [healthcare] in the world," Americans also suffer from some of the worst outcomes.

"With healthcare, we have the best in the world — doctors, hospitals, pharma, you name it — but we also have some of the worst outcomes. Obesity, wellness programs that could work better, the opioid problem, 40 million uninsured. So you know, to me, you look at the whole issue and what should we do about it," he said.

Mr. Dimon said the company's joint venture is tackling just that, but that its current goal is to build up its team and strategize on how to properly address the issue. He said health spending represents almost 18 percent of the United States' gross domestic product — an unsustainable figure.

"If you look at it as a competitive issue, that is a huge impediment to American business over the next 50 years," he said, adding that the joint venture is approaching the issue as a long-term goal.

"We don't expect any announcement anytime soon. We will share if we come up with anything good, but we want to start small. Test a bunch of different things," Mr. Dimon said.

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