Detroit News Series Examines Effects of Increased Health Care Costs on General Motors

The Detroit News last week published a series of articles that examined the effects of increased health care costs on General Motors. Summaries of articles in the series appear below. The complete four-day series, titled "The General and the Beast," is available online.

• "Stranglehold: How General Motors and the Nation are Losing an Epic Battle To Tame the Health Care Beast": The article examines how GM spends $5.3 billion annually on health care costs for about 1.1 million employees, retirees and their dependents. The article also addresses how the "health care crisis" at GM might "well be a preview of what America will be facing in coming years" (French [1], Detroit News, 9/26).
  
  
• "In U.S., It's Pay More, Get Less: GM's Health Care Costs Are Far Lower in Canada, Other Countries": The article examines how the U.S. spends more on health care than other industrialized nations but scores lower on many health indicators, such as infant mortality rate and life expectancy (French [2], Detroit News, 9/26).
  
  
• "World War II Created Health Insurance Perk": The article examines the early history of the GM employee health benefits program, which began in the 1950s (French [3], Detroit News, 9/26).
  
  
• "Nationalized Care the Norm": The article examines how national health care systems function in other nations (French [4], Detroit News, 9/26).
  
  
• "GM's Bitter Pill: Automaker Spends Billions on Drugs for Aging Workers, Retirees": The article examines how GM spends $1.9 billion annually on prescription drugs for employees, retirees and their dependents (French [1], Detroit News, 9/27).
  
  
• "Losing the Battle of the Bulge: Unhealthy Lifestyles Weigh Heavily on Company's Health Care Costs": The article examines how high rates of diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions among the GM employees contribute to increased health care costs for the company (French [2], Detroit News, 9/27).
  
  
• "Waves of Retirees Amass Huge Bills: GM Chips Away at Benefits as Scores of Workers Age, Get Ill": The article examines how GM spends $4 billion annually on health care for retirees and their dependents, an amount that "will balloon in the next decade as a wave of workers and retirees now between ages 55 and 70 grow older and fall into ill health" (French [3], Detroit News, 9/27).
  
  
• "Americans Lead World in Obesity": The article compares obesity rates in the U.S. with those in other nations (French [4], Detroit News, 9/27).
  
  
• "Drugs Give Americans Sticker Shock": The article examines the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. compared with the cost in Canada and European nations (French [5], Detroit News, 9/27).
  
  
• "Bad Medicine: A Sloppy, Inefficient Medical System Costs Lives and Billions of Dollars": The article examines how medical errors and "massive differences" in prices and quality of health care in different parts of the U.S. contribute to "inefficiencies" in the GM health benefits program (French [1], Detroit News, 9/28).
  
  
• "St. Chevy Hospital? It Nearly Happened": The article examines a failed proposal under which GM would have opened and operated a number of health care facilities, such as clinics and hospitals, in as many as six cities in the Midwest (French [2], Detroit News, 9/28).
  
  
• "No Easy Fix to Health Care Crisis: Medical, Business Leader Agonize Over Slow Pace of Reform": The article examines how concern about potential costs "stymies reform" of the U.S. health care system. In addition, the article examines the advantages, disadvantages and statuses of four potential reforms: establishment of a national health care system, increased "personal responsibility," more transparency on health care prices and quality and use of electronic health records (French [1], Detroit News, 9/29).
  
  
• "Experts: Ailing System Needs Repair": The article highlights a discussion on the U.S. health care system with Bruce Bradley, health care policy director at GM; David Canter, senior vice president of Pfizer Michigan; Nancy Schlichting, president and CEO of the Henry Ford Health System; Kevin Seitz, senior vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) (French [2], Detroit News, 9/29).
  
  
• "GM's Health Care Lobby a Nonfactor in D.C.": The article examines how GM and other U.S. automakers have decided to "not aggressively pursue health care reform in Washington, despite the devastating toll medical bills are taking" on the companies (French [3], Detroit News, 9/29).