A chip company is an odd place to get advice on the US healthcare system. But the people who build semiconductors are smart.

The US will lose thousands of jobs to low-cost countries unless companies reduce soaring healthcare expenditures urgently, Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) chairman Craig Barrett told the Financial Times. As the paper points out, Intel has not had much success selling its solutions to the healthcare industry, so perhaps its comments are just a way to get back at the doctors, insurance companies, and hospitals.

But the comments may have the power of coming from a company that employees tens of thousands of people both inside and outside the US. Intel must constantly be weighing the total cost of supporting each person, balancing skills, resources, salary, and benefits.

Outsourcing functions overseas has been a big topic of debate of the last ten years. Companies like IBM (NYSE: IBM) send more work off-shore every year to places like India.

Intel may only be a chip company, but its seems to have good advice on healthcare costs.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a parter at 24/7 Wall St.

Intel (INTC) offers healthcare advice originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.