One cost burdens Detroitcarmakers-time's right for national health system

[papau]

It may seem an odd match, but many executives in Detroit's auto industry tell the Detroit Free Press that they support a national health care system in the U.S. Says the finance chief of General Motors, "We're not there yet, but nothing is more important to us. Nothing"

http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/autos6e_20040806.htm

One cost burdens carmakers

Some say time's right for national health system
August 6, 2004

BY JEFFREY McCRACKEN FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

TRAVERSE CITY - John Devine, the finance chief at General Motors Corp., stared into a crowd of hundreds of auto executives, suppliers and insiders at an annual forum for auto bigwigs. He took a question from the audience and finished with this: "We're not there yet, but nothing is more important to us. Nothing."<snip>

The "it" that was so important at this high-profile seminar held in the state that put America on wheels is health care and what to do about the soaring cost of it.

Devine was not alone. Several executives or industry experts wondered aloud if the time is right for a national health care plan.

"I spent a lot of time in Canada, and I used to think their health-care plan was a bad idea. Now after being back here I'm not so sure," said Larry Denton, CEO of Dura Automotive Systems Inc., a Rochester Hills-based auto supplier. "We're about the only modernized country not doing it and the companies here pay a 30-percent penalty because the rules are different."

At a gathering where one would expect the discussion to center on hot new cars or advances in lean manufacturing, instead executives, government officials and suppliers spoke about ever-escalating health-care costs and how they threaten the entire U.S. auto industry, especially Detroit's automakers.<snip>

[Not Me]

1. I was a VP at a major multinational company in an earlier life...

and the consensus there was we (corporate America) really missed the boat in '93 by not advancing serious discussion about the then impending health care crisis. I daresay that industry will be much more likely to get behind a Kerry proposal now.

[ret5hd]

2. when bizness really gets behind something...

is it ever really that far away?

we aren't there yet, but it's coming.

[madrchsod]

3. i work for

one of the largest printing companies in the world..their health costs in the next ten years will out pace profits by hundreds of millions each year..of course they are going with the "medical savings accounts" bullshit ,which will fail.
what i don`t understand is if the national health care is so bad why aren`t the candains and europeans dropping dead in mass? why is it fine for all the government employees and not the rest of us? why is it fine for bush and not his subjects?

[Mel]

5. so true! so true!

and imagine all of the people that where afraid to risk (due to lack of insurance) starting their own business working for their selves and not being enslaved working at jobs that make them miserable.

[denverbill]

4. It's about time!! If corporate America wakes up, we will get it.

I've been arguing the same thing for a long time. American companies and therefore American workers are at a competitive disadvantage against the rest of the industrialized world since companies here are forced to pay for healthcare, whereas everywhere else, the govt pays for it.