Businesses seeing appeal of Single Payer?

This is an article from Crain's Cleveland Business regarding the changing auto industry, and the comments of UAW's president at their convention last week in Las Vegas. It ends with a call to explore the viability of instituting a single-payer system in this country in order to keep manufacturers competitive.

Getting real

... To be specific, the Bush administration and Congress should examine the ramifications of instituting a single-payer national health plan. As Mr. Gettelfinger correctly noted last week in his speech, the high concentration of older workers and retirees at Ford and GM is causing the automakers to feel the impact of rising health care costs in a big way. However, those two companies are far from alone in their struggles with the medical component of their business expenses.

The challenge of covering those costs is particularly acute among employers with stagnant or shrinking rosters of active workers but growing rolls of retirees. Without a way to spread those costs and those risks beyond their own pools of insured lives, many companies face a daunting future. It is why we believe a single-payer system deserves a fresh look.

Read the full article