Who else?
Posted on 07/15/2008 1:50:38 PM PDT by abran770
(Fortune Magazine) -- Fellow Americans, choose your revolution. One way or another, we're getting a new health-care system. The old one is obviously broken. The U.S. now has 47 million uninsured, and costs are out of control. The Department of Health and Human Services predicts that if things continue as they are, health spending will almost double by 2017 to $4.3 trillion, or one-fifth of GDP, vs. 16% today.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Actually HMO Blue does.
McPain is another pandering socialist.
He lacks the cajoles to stand UP against more socialism.
McPain is an effeminate RHINO.
There is no healthcare crisis except the one created by the politicians that stand to gain—just like global warming created by Al Gore.
Excellent way to frame an argument, with specious statistics and at least one false statement.
No agenda here.
This is why GM Canada is a profitable branch of GM, while GM USA is not. Despite American beliefs that Canada has "free" health care, the fact of the matter is Canadian workers pay for their own health care through taxation, it is not paid for by their employers. And despite claims by the left that American health care is too expensive, it is cheaper, AND superior than the health care Canadians pay 3 times as much for through taxation.
There are common sense solutions to the problems plaguing American health insurance costs, but turning it into a branch of government costing each and every working American 1/3 of their wages for the premium plus eroding the quality of health care currently available in the USA to the level of care provided by Canada to it's citizens is not one of them.
Not true on GM. There is a Federal program that picks up those benefits, as outrageous as they are, at our expense. Several other firms have already taken advantage of it/us.
The average American company requires workers to pay upwards of $2,000 or more per year towards their own family health insurance premiums,
the auto industry however is among the 4% of employers that offer free family health coverage.
Added to that, retirees, who outnumber workers by more than 2-to-1 at General Motors, and represent significant percentages at the other major U.S. automakers, get the same deal.
USA Today- "How different are auto industry insurance plans from plans offered the typical U.S. worker?
"Unionized autoworkers can choose plans for which they pay nothing toward monthly premiums. Nationally, workers pay an average of 16% of the premium toward single coverage and 28% of the premium for family policies, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of employers shows. That's an average of $558 a year for single employees and $2,661 for families."
"While union workers at the Big Three automakers do pay for doctor-office visits, their annual expenses for doctor visits, drug costs and other services is capped at $250 for single employees and $500 for families, according to a United Auto Workers Web site. Outside the industry, more than a third of workers have caps of $2,500 or more, the Kaiser survey says."
"Autoworkers have no annual deductible. Nationally, the Kaiser survey shows the average annual deductible offered by large employers for similar insurance policies is $280 for singles and $861 for families."
"Assembly plant workers can buy generic drugs for $5 per prescription and brand-name products for $10 each. Nationally, the average is $10 for generics, $21 for brand-name drugs that are on a preferred list set by employers and $33 for brand-name drugs not on a preferred list."
"Retirees get the same medical benefits in the unionized industry. Nationally, only 36% of large firms offered retiree health benefits in 2004, down from 66% in 1988, the Kaiser survey shows. Outside the auto industry, retirees who do get insurance coverage pay an average of $187 a month toward it, says Brian Johnson, senior research analyst at Sanford Bernstein. Writing in a June 10 Bernstein Research Call report, he says GM alone could save $1.4 billion in cash annually if it began charging retirees $150 a month toward their health costs."
"The cost of providing health care adds from $1,100 to $1,500 to the cost of each of the 4.65 million vehicles GM sold last year, according to various calculations. GM expects to spend at least $5.6 billion on health care this year, more than it spent on advertising last year."
No mention of federal funding at all.
using those smaller of the estimate, GM pays over 51 billion$$$ a year in health care costs for it’s US employee’s
The Federal plan kicks in if GM fails.
I've never heard of any such thing. Perhaps, if GM "fails" (goes out of business), you are talking about Medicaid.
It is a “safety net” for pension plans. If GM goes under or finds a way to declare the pension fund insolvent, the government program kicks in. The last I knew, it covers the exact same benefits from taxpayer funds. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Here is some older news on it:
Rush Limbaugh mentioned this last summer.
Who else?
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