Why isnt GM pushing for national health care?

[AllegroRondo]

The UAW is on strike, and one of the biggest points they are arguing about is health care costs. GM wants to stay competitive with car makers in Japan, who dont have such huge health care costs for their workers and retirees. They want the union to pick up health care costs, and the workers to pay a bigger portion themselves.

Why isnt GM pushing to get national health care? thats EXACTLY why the Japanese car makers have lower health care costs for their workers.

[Astrad]

1. Because when the president of GM

is golfing with his buddies from the insurance and medical industries they tell him he won't be invited anymore if he does.

[ret5hd]

2. and wal-mart. and the airlines. and ford. and sears.

[TahitiNut]

3. The financial sector "owns" them.

No publicly-traded manufacturer dare go up against the financial sector les they find their lines of credit shrinking and their bonds and stock consigned to back burners.

[W_HAMILTON]

4. I always wondered about that myself

You figured big business would get behind a national healthcare program, because Lord knows they love cutting costs at every opportunity possible.

[raccoon]

5. My guess is they figure they'll outsource the jobs to China or wherever and won't have to worry

about health care costs for those workers.

[liberal N proud]

6. Because it makes too much sense

You would think it would resolve much of their current labor dispute

[monktonman]

7. Because they are shareholders. n/t

[HughBeaumont]

8. Big Insurance has more pull in the financial sector than Big Auto does.

Either way, the insatiable greed of The Corporation and the multitudes of idiot pro-unbridled Corporatism voters (usually Republicans) that think they'll get a piece of that pie one day are going to send this country to hell on a rocket.

America doesn't need "Market-Driven" solutions.

[BlooInBloo]

9. That's what everybody was saying yesterday...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1894712

[Iris]

10. You'd think they and the rest of Corporate America would see this

All except the insurance industry, of course.

[ljm2002]

11. The fact that they are not...

...tells us all we need to know about how crony capitalism and the fake free markets really work. They won't be pushing for it any time soon, even though it would work to their advantage, because to do so would mean turning against their good buddies in the upper echelons of society. And that is never gonna happen.

One wonders though: why aren't there more shareholder revolts, insisting that their boards of directors take up this worthy cause? Because national health care would affect the bottom line of most companies, and the way our system is structured, that bottom line -- and its effect on the value of shares -- is supposed to be the prime directive for company officers.

But of course, the big shareholders are part of the same system.

It really is way, way past time for a populist revolt in this country.

[Clintonista2]

12. Exactly. Do you think corporations are bitching in Canada about health care?

[BlooInBloo]

13. I think it's because, despite the costs, private health care keeps employess tethered to the company

[PDenton]

14. Japan is not like the US though

Their healthcare system is similar to the Clinton/Edwards plans, it is not a single-payer system. Most people are insured through employers, insurance is mandatory, and they have a state-run insurance program for those who cannot buy insurance. Also, Japanese generally are healthier in terms of lower obesity and cancer rates, even though males tend to be over twice as likely to smoke as Americans.

Yes, getting universal healthcare should be a priority but Japanese still have a healhtier workforce. Americans are so unhealthy because simply put our society is unhealthy. Unless we change our society overall, we are going to have to spend more on healthcare than other industrialized countries.