Health Care Costs

As part of getting everything ready for our convention, I was writing the intros for our speakers today. During a break, I picked up the current copy of The Economist and was thumbing through it. I found an article regarding the American car industry and the following interesting little item.

Meanwhile, GM must contend with the crushing burden of health-care costs for current and retired workers: $4 billion a year, roughly $2,000 for each vehicle it makes in America.

Yikes! And you wonder why GM recently announced layoffs planned for this year of 8,000 people. Still, numbers released earlier this year showed that GM made more money from their lending arm, GMAC, than they did from car sales. So, does this now mean that GM is now just a bank that also happens to make cars. But with numbers like those listed above, how long can the status quo go on?