American Healthcare: the 'Prime Example of How Not To Do It'

American Healthcare: the 'Prime Example of How Not To Do It'

Calling America’s methods of offering its people healthcare, ‘an impenetrable jungle,’ this editorial from NRC Habdelsblad of The Netherlands warns any country that is thinking of trying the U.S. system: ‘The American example will remain the prime example of how not to do it.’


EDITORIAL

Translated By Jan de Nijs

October 14, 2005

NRC Handelsblad - The Netherlands - Home Page (Dutch)
A System 'Screaming for Reform'

While Dutch citizens are worried about the phase-in of a new and revised health care benefits system, we have just received a clear message from the United States: things can always get worse. Much worse even. Last Monday, the automobile giant General Motors (GM) settled its differences with the United Auto Workers Union. In the United States, health care benefits for workers and retirees will be cut to the tune of a $1 billion per year over the next 3 years, as GM cannot sustain the current level of benefits. Every car produced comes with a $1,500 healthcare burden. This is another reason that GM is now effectively unable to compete with the Asian manufacturers. The generous benefits package, a legacy of the 70s, is the reason some had started to refer to GM as “Generous Motors.”


'Generous Motors?'

But these problems are not GM’s alone. Delphi, a first tier parts supplier to the auto industry (spun off by GM in 1999), went into bankruptcy last week. GM lost $1.6 billion in the last quarter. And it is highly likely that the two other American car makers, Ford and Chrysler (part of the DaimlerChrysler), will follow GM’s lead in reducing benefits. That would include the tactical maneuvering: reduce health care benefits by implicitly threatening bankruptcy. The message is perfectly clear: swallow our benefit reductions or there will be no benefits at all anymore.

GM’s course of action underlines again how dangerous it is when pension and health care benefits all depend on an individual corporation. Employees and the corporation find themselves in the same boat when the company gets into trouble, or closes its gates. The GM issue puts the spotlight again on what has become the American way of organizing healthcare benefits: an impenetrable jungle.
http://www.watchingamerica.com/nrchandelsblad000013.html

...he knows how the system works...

Given his recent statements, I can't understand how he remains a doctor. Somehow I can't imagine he was "Frist" in his class at med school. But he's sure "Frist in line" at the trough.