New York Times Articles Examine Health Benefit Issues For General Motors Employees

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 21 Apr 2006 - 5:00 PDT

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The New York Times on Wednesday published two articles that addressed health benefit issues for General Motors employees. Summaries appear below.

• Buyout offers: The Times examines how thousands of GM employees who "face decisions about the company's buyout offers before an early June deadline are getting a crash course in medical cost-benefit analysis." According to the Times, GM has made "various levels of buyout offers" that might "appeal to many employees," but the "prospect of losing ... health coverage can be terrifying for workers who went straight from high school into factory jobs and have few good prospects for employment beyond the assembly line." GM has offered as much as $140,000 to experienced employees to leave the company without benefits, which "might not be a bad deal," according to Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Brian Johnson. GM employees "need to analyze the company's uncertain future" because "it is increasingly unlikely they can continue to provide what used to be called Cadillac comprehensive health coverage," and "some benefits have already been trimmed," the Times reports (Freudenheim [1], New York Times, 4/19).
  
  
• Health benefit reductions: The Times examines how the "auto industry's efforts to rein in employee health costs is drawing an expensive reaction, as union workers and their spouses hurry to Michigan doctors for knee replacements and other elective procedures before they lose their comprehensive medical benefits." According to the Times, hospitals, physicians and health insurers have "all noticed a surge in demand for elective surgery since last year," when GM CEO Rick Wagoner "led a public relations campaign to prepare auto workers for health care cutbacks." The number of hip, knee and shoulder replacements performed at the Henry Ford Health System increased by 20% in the second half of 2005, according to Robert Riney, chief operating officer of HFHS. In addition, the GM buyout offers "might cover only about half of future health care costs for typical" employees, with the "rush to get expensive elective procedures completed while someone else is picking up most of the bill," the Times reports (Freudenheim [2], New York Times, 4/19).

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