Organization dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of Health Policy issues for the policy making community, the media and the surrounding stakeholders in the d. C. Area and beyond. So welcome this morning to those who are joining us live on cspan2 and watching from home. And before we begin, i just want to make a quick note about the dates for the next several breakfasts. Well be doing them about once a month. The next one will be march 29th, and we will be talking about pandemic preparedness. So quite different from todays topic. Today we are delving into the broad topic of shifting dynamics in the Health Care Market, and were going to take a closer look at the issues around market concentration, consolidation and integration. And although there have been a lot of recent headlines about this topic, this is not a new issue in our health care system, and so the panel of experts today is going to help us understand whats happening right now, what the implications are and als
Extraordinary moment for sports specifically womens. You go, girl. Matt we kick it off with our top stories. Those are two of them. The next move may be up to greece after voters rejected more austerity. Whatever greece does next, it will happen without Yanis Varoufakis. He has quit. He says there is a certain preference among european asp among european creditors that he no longer be involved in negotiations. Alexis tsipras that the no campaign which received 61 of the vote. He called it a courageous choice. Today, we celebrate the victory of democracy. From tomorrow, we continue and will complete our National Effort on exiting the crisis. The greek peoples believe in our own strength and justification we are right. Matt germany and france meet up today said decide a common response. Greek banks may run out of cash in hours unless the ecb extends another lifeline. Stephanie john kerrys temporary expectations that a nuclear deal with iran is imminent. He said negotiators are not where
Man opened fire and a Movie Theater last night. He killed two people and wounded nine others before killing himself. The shooter tried to escape and then turned back when he saw police entered the theater. Governor jindal when these acts of violence happen in a Movie Theater, when there is no real good reason why this kind of evil should intrude on the lives or families were out for a night of entertainment, a lot of us were horrified and shocked. The great thing about america is when any of us suffer, we all suffer. This is a time for us to come together. Vonnie and we have breaking news. Anthem will buy signet cigna. This had been telegraphed. Were waiting for this to become official. Anthem is buying cigna. That would work out to 48 billion, creating the Largest Health insurer in the United States. A year of talks. Tom and a moment in our financial history. I wish chris halen with you chris whalen was here. Ive never seen a headline that says anthem combined company sees accretion a
2. 25. And oil, as you see, still below 50. A move made this week as we watched the commodity complex come down across the board. The road map starts with amazon overtaking walmart in market cap after reporting a surprise Second Quarter profit. The shares up 20 in the premarket. Star bucks shares also higher ahead of the open. The coo told jim last night. And anthem agrees to buy cigna. The price and the release is 188 a share. In reality, its a bit less than that. Well get to that deal. We begin with amazon reporting a Second Quarter profit of 0. 19 a share while wall street was expecting a 0. 14 a share loss. Sales up 20 . That was up by strength in web services. Shares of amazon surging in the premarket putting the market cap above that of walmart and making founder and the ceo about 7 billion richer. Thats right. 7 billion more just from the move up. Thats a side show. The main show is the numbers themselves. This Company Getting rewarded perhaps like no other for Revenue Growth. M
Out of our country. [cheers and applause] and when theyre gone, our now very strong borders, especially with the wall, will never allow them back in. [cheers and applause] so were doing a lot of things, were very proud of what were doing. Justice gorsuch was a big, big deal. [applause] big deal. Somebody explained it to me beautifully. They said when you pick a Supreme Court judge, you want great intellect, you want all of the things but also want youth because theyll be there for 40 years. So if judge gorsuch who ive gotten to know who is a fantastic human being aside from being a brilliant, brilliant student and person and one of the great legal writers that exists in our countries, probably in the world today, every time you see a decision written over the next 30 or 40 years, and especially if its a 54 decision, like perhaps on Second Amendment or so many other things, you have done something that you cant value. Its so important. Think of it. For 30 to 40year period, potentially,