SEATTLE (AP) -- Amazon, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the New York bank JPMorgan Chase are teaming up to create health care company "free from profit-making incentives and constraints."

Buffett, in a prepared statement Tuesday, called the skyrocketing costs of health care in the U.S. the "hungry tapeworm on the American economy."

The ambitious goal, they say, is in the early planning stages, but the seismic nature of the announcement sent a shockwave through the health industry.

Shares of health care companies are falling in early trading.