:: Maybe U.S. could learn from GM
The United Auto Workers strike against General Motors ended almost before it began and that has to be good news for the 3,000 or so GM workers in Janesville and those who depend on them.
Details haven 't been released yet, but it seems as if what GM got out of the deal was the ability to shed a $50 billion liability for retiree health benefits. Instead, it will give the union a huge amount of money -- I 've read $35 billion -- and let the union invest it on behalf of the retirees.
What the retirees get is a little less clear. Previously, they had health benefits guaranteed for life by one of the world 's great corporations. Now, they will have to depend on the whims of the stock market.
That 's a loss. The workers gave up other benefits over the years to guarantee that retirement program and now they have less security than they thought they had.
Since relatively few of us who aren 't in the UAW have any guaranteed retirement health benefits aside from Medicare, we may not feel too sorry for the GM retirees. But, they thought they had a deal and now they don 't.
Why would GM be willing to spend billions to buy its way out of the retirement package? Because the company simply can 't long survive if it must provide benefits to four retirees for every current American worker.
Can you think of any other major enterprise that has made long-term retirement health benefit promises to its workers and hasn 't funded those benefits for the long term?
Why, yes. That would be the United States of America. The USA has a fairly good retirement health benefits program. It 's called Medicare and it has done an incredibly good job in making the "golden years " safe for the nation 's elderly. Medicare pays hospital bills, doctor bills and drug bills.
It has its problems, but few of us would dare risk retirement -- and the subsequent loss of company health insurance -- without it.
The problem is that Medicare has the same problems the GM program has. It faces an increasing number of retirees who will place an increasing burden on its resources and it sees no good way of replenishing those resources.
From what I 've read, Medicare will start being in fiscal trouble in about five years. We all talk about Social Security, but Social Security is in relatively good shape for at least three more decades. Medicare is in trouble right now.
Unfortunately, the U.S. has no equivalent of the UAW to take over the Medicare program. I suppose we could hand the AARP a few trillion dollars and tell it to invest the money for our elderly, but that is a fanciful suggestion.
What we need is a serious discussion about the nation 's health policies and how we finance the care we need.
Instead, we get carping and sniping. Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced a health-care plan that was met with derision before anyone even read it. President Bush toured the country pushing Social Security reform but hasn 't done anything about Medicare except to increase its liabilities. We 're talking about actually cutting the number of kids who are eligible for health-care benefits.
I 'm beginning to think we ought to push the president and Congress aside and ask GM and the UAW to negotiate a solution for this dilemma.
