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Back to Home > Saturday, May 20, 2006 Living Posted on Sat, May. 20, 2006 email this print this
Former President Bill Clinton says health-care spending is dragging down the nation's competitiveness, particularly in the automotive industry.
Speaking here on Friday, Clinton said that General Motors Corp. pays an average of $1,500 per car to cover the total cost of health insurance for its employees -- more, he said, than Japanese automakers pay per car.
"The Japanese would rather pay less on health care and beat our brains out in the car competition," Clinton told about 250 people at a forum on health care sponsored by Huron Consulting Group and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Ford Motor Co. pays an average $980 a car to provide its workers with health insurance, and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group pays around $600 per car, he said.
Clinton said the United States has decided it's more important to let "the health-care-financing tail wag the health-care dog than it is to maintain a competitive auto industry or insure all Americans or improve the quality of health care."
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama recently introduced legislation in Congress that would help address soaring health care costs for automakers by defraying industry's costs of investment in more fuel-efficient cars.
Obama's proposal calls for the federal government to pick up a portion of the costs automakers pay for retiree health care, so long as companies use some of the savings to retool their factories.
Obama said the Big Three automakers spent $6.7 billion on retiree health care costs in 2004. Clinton said he supports the measure and "would gladly give up my tax cut" to pay for it.
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Former President Bill Clinton says health-care spending is dragging down the nation's competitiveness, particularly in the automotive industry.
Speaking here on Friday, Clinton said that General Motors Corp. pays an average of $1,500 per car to cover the total cost of health insurance for its employees -- more, he said, than Japanese automakers pay per car.
"The Japanese would rather pay less on health care and beat our brains out in the car competition," Clinton told about 250 people at a forum on health care sponsored by Huron Consulting Group and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Ford Motor Co. pays an average $980 a car to provide its workers with health insurance, and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group pays around $600 per car, he said.
Clinton said the United States has decided it's more important to let "the health-care-financing tail wag the health-care dog than it is to maintain a competitive auto industry or insure all Americans or improve the quality of health care."
Democratic Sen. Barack Obama recently introduced legislation in Congress that would help address soaring health care costs for automakers by defraying industry's costs of investment in more fuel-efficient cars.
Obama's proposal calls for the federal government to pick up a portion of the costs automakers pay for retiree health care, so long as companies use some of the savings to retool their factories.
Obama said the Big Three automakers spent $6.7 billion on retiree health care costs in 2004. Clinton said he supports the measure and "would gladly give up my tax cut" to pay for it.
This is cache, read story here
