Posts
Grassroots in Michigan organized and was joined by Tea Party of West Michigan Southwest MI Tea Party Patriots and other patriots from across Michigan to protest and deliver a Pink Slip to liberal tool Debbie Stabenow with a message, "we will do everything in our power to make sure Sen. Stabenow does not return to office in 2012" Debbie Stabenow is a lock step liberal who was on the Senate Finance Committee that voted the Baucus Amendment out. Please take a minute to read the most egregious parts of the Baucus Amendment AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST because you won't hear the truth from Debbie!
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Friday, October 16, 2009
AFTER ACTION REPORT: Michigan Patriots Deliver Pink Slip to Liberal Debbie Stabenow
Grassroots in Michigan organized and was joined by Tea Party of West Michigan Southwest MI Tea Party Patriots and other patriots from across Michigan to protest and deliver a Pink Slip to liberal tool Debbie Stabenow with a message, "we will do everything in our power to make sure Sen. Stabenow does not return to office in 2012" Debbie Stabenow is a lock step liberal who was on the Senate Finance Committee that voted the Baucus Amendment out. Please take a minute to read the most egregious parts of the Baucus Amendment AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST because you won't hear the truth from Debbie!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Shattered Lives: One Hundred Victims of Government Health Care
The National Center for Public Policy Research
"...Shattered Lives will educate you, the American public, to the horror of government-managed health care where it exists today.
In this book are documented stories from Canada, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Japan, Australia and elsewhere - countries in which citizens literally die waiting for health services. Among other horrifying takes, you will cringe over tales of expectant mothers unable to find an available hospital bed, elderly patients denied routine cataract surgery and people in agony who resorted to do-it-yourself dentistry.
YOU MAY DOWNLOAD,PRINT OR E-MAIL this pre-publication copy of Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care to your computer BY CLICKING ON "More"
Shattered Lives
These tragic stories warn us that turning more of our health care decisions over to the government is sure to bring us nothing but pain."
-Mark R. Levin, Host, The Mark Levin Show
Author, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto
"Anyone who believes that nationalized health care equals quality health care needs to read these real-life horror stories of people denied care or forced to wait months for urgently-needed medical treatment because they live in countries with nationalized health care."
-- Congressman Ron Paul, M.D. (R-TX)
"On a good day the practice of medicine is demanding and difficult. A bad day can range from frustrating to terrifying. An active clinical practice deals with cases that run the spectrum of complex to impossible-yet all the while physicians and nurses put forth their best efforts as is appropriate to their ability. To take this already demanding lifestyle and further complicate it by insensitive government control and regime insults the integrity of every provider-and places the patient in even greater peril. This is a powerful book, and one that should be regarded and read by every elected official who believes he or she has the gift to change medical practice to suit the whim of the government."
-- Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX)
"Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans are satisfied with the quality of the health care they receive. "Shattered Lives" provides strong evidence that the more we turn over health care decisions to the government, the less satisfied we will be."
-- Paul Mirengoff
Power Line Blog
"While in most parts of the world private health care is an option, government in my native Canada holds a death grip. Government there legally forbids millions of people in most parts of Canada from buying private health care. Some of them choose to get their health care outside Canada. Shattered Lives tells the stories of several of these health care refugees and warns why a centralized, government-managed approach is how not to fix health care in America-or anywhere else."
-- David R. Henderson
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
"Shattered Lives shows the ugly realities of statist medicine its acolytes don't want you to know. I applaud The National Center for warning the American people that a government takeover, whether slow or accelerated, is not the answer for improving our health care system."
-- Tom Blumer
BizzyBlog, NewsBusters.org
"Shattered Lives provides a sharp reminder that government mismanagement of health care has high human costs not only in a developing country like South Africa, but in rich countries too. This is because it's not just about money, but incentives and choice."
-- Jack Bloom, MPL
Health Spokesman, Democratic Alliance Party
Gauteng Provincial Legislature, South Africa
Monday, July 27, 2009
In case you missed it...abortion amendment slipped into the Senate health care bill
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D.-Md.) slipped an amendment into the Senate health care bill that would allow the administraion to mandate that insurance companies cover abortion and taxpayers pay for it.
Posted using ShareThis
Posted using ShareThis
Thursday, May 17, 2007
The Game Changes
Autos May 17, 2007,
A Deal that Could Save Detroit http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/may2007/bw20070516_345880.htm
Handing the UAW a chunk of long-term health-care liabilities is a radical plan but may be the one that works
by David Welch and Nanette Byrnes
Just a few weeks ago, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger had nothing but contempt for the "strip-and-flip" private equity investors bidding for Chrysler Group DCX. So most people expected him to come out slugging when Cerberus Capital Management agreed to buy the struggling automaker on May 14. Instead, Gettelfinger embraced Chrysler's new owner. "The status quo is off the table," he declared.
Attitudes are evolving rapidly in Detroit these days, and it is clear that the arrival of the bare-knuckle financial wizards from Cerberus is only going to hasten the pace of change in town. Managers and UAW leaders alike appear to accept that a time of reckoning is at hand. As they look ahead to landmark labor talks this summer, both sides finally appear set to face up to the most vexing problem of all: unsustainably high health-care costs. Thanks to luxe benefits handed over during the golden age of corporate largesse in the 1950s, the Big Three will have an estimated $120 billion in long-term medical liabilities, a crippling burden that puts them at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage to global rivals.
But General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), and Chrysler's new owners at Cerberus believe they may have a cure for Detroit's epic health-care woes. Their idea: to propose handing over the companies' long-term liability to an independent fund managed by the UAW, which would be financed by a huge one-time injection of cash and stock. Union workers would probably contribute more toward their own coverage costs but would gain protection from the devastating prospect of bankruptcy.
The automakers, meanwhile, would wall off a risk that terrifies investors—and earn perhaps their final shot at becoming competitive again. "I think an independent health-care fund has to happen," says Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Ron Gettelfinger may even be resigned to doing it." Big Costs, Big Hopes
This radical idea already has some precedent in Detroit. In 2005 GM and the UAW created a so-called voluntary employee benefits association (VEBA) trust, for a small portion of the company's retiree health-care expenses. The union has also consented to VEBA funds for individual plants belonging to a few parts suppliers. Over the past few months, managers at all three car manufacturers have been closely studying a similar deal struck between the United Steelworkers and Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT) in December that relieved the tiremaker from most of its medical obligations without stiffing union workers.
While the Big Three have not been trumpeting the VEBA trust plan, expect to hear more about it as this summer's labor talks approach. Creating such a trust "for the whole industry [is the] primary objective of this year's round of bargaining," says one investment banker well-connected in Detroit. "That's clearly what the Big Three want."
To see why Motown executives are so excited, take a look at how GM would benefit from such a trust. The company has UAW health-care liabilities of $52 billion, not including $18 billion for white-collar workers, according to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) analyst Himanshu Patel. The company's first step would be to reduce its liability by asking current and former workers to fork over more for their own health coverage. Then GM would set up a trust fund. Because it would be invested to grow over time, the fund could be valued at, say, 60% of the liabilities, around $31 billion. That may sound risky for the union, but there are risks on both sides of the equation. Unlike pensions, retiree medical benefits are not guaranteed by law and would not be protected in a bankruptcy, a big worry with the U.S. car companies floundering.
How in the world would GM come up with so much money? The company could start with the $15 billion in VEBA money already set aside in some existing trusts. Patel thinks GM could then afford to take a further $8.2 billion in cash from its coffers and sales of some assets, plug in some equity, and borrow about $5 billion. Add it up, Patel contends, and GM could fund all of its union health-care obligations.
Quick Bounce
Setting up the fund would add debt and drain cash, but it would yield big benefits immediately. Patel estimates that such a deal would boost pretax profits by $900 million in the first year and save GM about $700 million in cash. Accounting for inflation, GM's health-care expenses would drop by about $200 million a year and cash flow would improve by $400 million a year. Ford's health-care expense would drop by $800 million the first year and cash flow would improve by $200 million. Patel thinks the growing improvement to cash flow would help the Big Three narrow the gap with Toyota (TM) on product and research and development spending. Right now Toyota dedicates almost 12% of its revenue to capital expenditures and R&D. GM spends just 8.4% of its revenue.
If it all sounds too good to be true, it may very well be. The devil will be in the plan's infinite details. The companies' ability to fund a big trust, first of all, depends upon how much money the UAW requests. If the union seeks assets totaling 80% of liabilities, then GM and Ford may not be able to afford it. Since GM already borrowed $18 billion in 2003 to shore up its pension fund and Ford borrowed $23.5 billion this year for restructuring, neither wants to shoulder much more long-term debt. Both have junk debt ratings, so the money would be quite expensive.
At some point, a judge would also have to sign off on a global Big Three trust, because Ford and GM face a legal impediment. When the union gave them concessions on health care last year, a lawsuit was filed to freeze retiree benefits. The courts upheld the deal, but froze the new benefits package until 2011. GM Chairman and CEO G. Richard Wagoner Jr. said in a December interview that further concessions made on behalf of those retirees would need court approval. The same goes for Ford—but not Chrysler, which never won the same health-care concessions as its rivals
.
"The Game Changes"
Nothing in the court order prevents the two companies from setting up a fund to cover new retirees, of course. McAlinden says that the 34,000 GM workers who took retirement as part of the company's recent restructuring could be covered by a new independent VEBA if UAW leaders consented to such a deal. Then, GM and Ford could set up a fund to cover the rest of their retirees beginning after 2011. McAlinden estimates that 80% of the long-term liabilities will be incurred after that date.
The diverging legal and business dynamics at the three companies make a big trust covering benefits at each one difficult to establish. But it is unlikely the UAW would allow one or two of the companies to establish a separate trust to wall off health-care liabilities, even though such a scenario is theoretically possible. That would violate a longstanding union policy against giving any particular member of the Big Three a substantial cost advantage over the other two.
If giant independent trusts get established for all of the auto companies, one far-reaching implication of the move is that the UAW would become an enormous health-care provider. Another is that the union would be forced to manage benefits. That means if costs rise faster than investment returns, the union might have to offer weaker medical benefits to its own members. Right now, if health care gets more expensive, GM, Ford, and Chrysler just cut bigger checks. But it's possible the UAW may do just as well at managing the money as the companies do. Major union-run pension plans nationwide made nearly 14.6% returns last year, about half a point better than large corporate-run funds did, according to Wilshire Associates.
So there's reason to believe that the UAW, even though it will certainly negotiate aggressively, may be willing to go for the idea of a VEBA trust. Although the idea would have been a nonstarter in 2003, the last time the union contract was renegotiated, things have taken a powerful turn for the worse in the past few years. And the arrival of Cerberus may well increase Detroit's willingness to engage in complex financial engineering. "You bring in private equity, and the game changes," says Center for Automotive Research Chairman David E. Cole.
With Anthony Bianco in New YorkWelch is BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau chief, and Byrnes is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York
We are living in very interesting times. I have said all along that Gettlefinger's tough talk was just a show for Union kool aid drinkers as he does an about face in the wake of Chrysler's sale to the private equity group, Cerberus. He know where his bread is buttered. However its interesting because the worm would turn and the UAW would be sitting in management's seat if this health care deal goes through. I wonder how how they will spin reduced benefits to the membership after years of fighting to keep costly entitlements?
Stayed tuned, the UAW contract with GM will expire this September so there will be ground breaking announcements to come...
A Deal that Could Save Detroit http://www.businessweek.com/autos/content/may2007/bw20070516_345880.htm
Handing the UAW a chunk of long-term health-care liabilities is a radical plan but may be the one that works
by David Welch and Nanette Byrnes
Just a few weeks ago, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger had nothing but contempt for the "strip-and-flip" private equity investors bidding for Chrysler Group DCX. So most people expected him to come out slugging when Cerberus Capital Management agreed to buy the struggling automaker on May 14. Instead, Gettelfinger embraced Chrysler's new owner. "The status quo is off the table," he declared.
Attitudes are evolving rapidly in Detroit these days, and it is clear that the arrival of the bare-knuckle financial wizards from Cerberus is only going to hasten the pace of change in town. Managers and UAW leaders alike appear to accept that a time of reckoning is at hand. As they look ahead to landmark labor talks this summer, both sides finally appear set to face up to the most vexing problem of all: unsustainably high health-care costs. Thanks to luxe benefits handed over during the golden age of corporate largesse in the 1950s, the Big Three will have an estimated $120 billion in long-term medical liabilities, a crippling burden that puts them at a nearly insurmountable disadvantage to global rivals.
But General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), and Chrysler's new owners at Cerberus believe they may have a cure for Detroit's epic health-care woes. Their idea: to propose handing over the companies' long-term liability to an independent fund managed by the UAW, which would be financed by a huge one-time injection of cash and stock. Union workers would probably contribute more toward their own coverage costs but would gain protection from the devastating prospect of bankruptcy.
The automakers, meanwhile, would wall off a risk that terrifies investors—and earn perhaps their final shot at becoming competitive again. "I think an independent health-care fund has to happen," says Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Ron Gettelfinger may even be resigned to doing it." Big Costs, Big Hopes
This radical idea already has some precedent in Detroit. In 2005 GM and the UAW created a so-called voluntary employee benefits association (VEBA) trust, for a small portion of the company's retiree health-care expenses. The union has also consented to VEBA funds for individual plants belonging to a few parts suppliers. Over the past few months, managers at all three car manufacturers have been closely studying a similar deal struck between the United Steelworkers and Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT) in December that relieved the tiremaker from most of its medical obligations without stiffing union workers.
While the Big Three have not been trumpeting the VEBA trust plan, expect to hear more about it as this summer's labor talks approach. Creating such a trust "for the whole industry [is the] primary objective of this year's round of bargaining," says one investment banker well-connected in Detroit. "That's clearly what the Big Three want."
To see why Motown executives are so excited, take a look at how GM would benefit from such a trust. The company has UAW health-care liabilities of $52 billion, not including $18 billion for white-collar workers, according to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) analyst Himanshu Patel. The company's first step would be to reduce its liability by asking current and former workers to fork over more for their own health coverage. Then GM would set up a trust fund. Because it would be invested to grow over time, the fund could be valued at, say, 60% of the liabilities, around $31 billion. That may sound risky for the union, but there are risks on both sides of the equation. Unlike pensions, retiree medical benefits are not guaranteed by law and would not be protected in a bankruptcy, a big worry with the U.S. car companies floundering.
How in the world would GM come up with so much money? The company could start with the $15 billion in VEBA money already set aside in some existing trusts. Patel thinks GM could then afford to take a further $8.2 billion in cash from its coffers and sales of some assets, plug in some equity, and borrow about $5 billion. Add it up, Patel contends, and GM could fund all of its union health-care obligations.
Quick Bounce
Setting up the fund would add debt and drain cash, but it would yield big benefits immediately. Patel estimates that such a deal would boost pretax profits by $900 million in the first year and save GM about $700 million in cash. Accounting for inflation, GM's health-care expenses would drop by about $200 million a year and cash flow would improve by $400 million a year. Ford's health-care expense would drop by $800 million the first year and cash flow would improve by $200 million. Patel thinks the growing improvement to cash flow would help the Big Three narrow the gap with Toyota (TM) on product and research and development spending. Right now Toyota dedicates almost 12% of its revenue to capital expenditures and R&D. GM spends just 8.4% of its revenue.
If it all sounds too good to be true, it may very well be. The devil will be in the plan's infinite details. The companies' ability to fund a big trust, first of all, depends upon how much money the UAW requests. If the union seeks assets totaling 80% of liabilities, then GM and Ford may not be able to afford it. Since GM already borrowed $18 billion in 2003 to shore up its pension fund and Ford borrowed $23.5 billion this year for restructuring, neither wants to shoulder much more long-term debt. Both have junk debt ratings, so the money would be quite expensive.
At some point, a judge would also have to sign off on a global Big Three trust, because Ford and GM face a legal impediment. When the union gave them concessions on health care last year, a lawsuit was filed to freeze retiree benefits. The courts upheld the deal, but froze the new benefits package until 2011. GM Chairman and CEO G. Richard Wagoner Jr. said in a December interview that further concessions made on behalf of those retirees would need court approval. The same goes for Ford—but not Chrysler, which never won the same health-care concessions as its rivals
.
"The Game Changes"
Nothing in the court order prevents the two companies from setting up a fund to cover new retirees, of course. McAlinden says that the 34,000 GM workers who took retirement as part of the company's recent restructuring could be covered by a new independent VEBA if UAW leaders consented to such a deal. Then, GM and Ford could set up a fund to cover the rest of their retirees beginning after 2011. McAlinden estimates that 80% of the long-term liabilities will be incurred after that date.
The diverging legal and business dynamics at the three companies make a big trust covering benefits at each one difficult to establish. But it is unlikely the UAW would allow one or two of the companies to establish a separate trust to wall off health-care liabilities, even though such a scenario is theoretically possible. That would violate a longstanding union policy against giving any particular member of the Big Three a substantial cost advantage over the other two.
If giant independent trusts get established for all of the auto companies, one far-reaching implication of the move is that the UAW would become an enormous health-care provider. Another is that the union would be forced to manage benefits. That means if costs rise faster than investment returns, the union might have to offer weaker medical benefits to its own members. Right now, if health care gets more expensive, GM, Ford, and Chrysler just cut bigger checks. But it's possible the UAW may do just as well at managing the money as the companies do. Major union-run pension plans nationwide made nearly 14.6% returns last year, about half a point better than large corporate-run funds did, according to Wilshire Associates.
So there's reason to believe that the UAW, even though it will certainly negotiate aggressively, may be willing to go for the idea of a VEBA trust. Although the idea would have been a nonstarter in 2003, the last time the union contract was renegotiated, things have taken a powerful turn for the worse in the past few years. And the arrival of Cerberus may well increase Detroit's willingness to engage in complex financial engineering. "You bring in private equity, and the game changes," says Center for Automotive Research Chairman David E. Cole.
With Anthony Bianco in New YorkWelch is BusinessWeek's Detroit bureau chief, and Byrnes is a senior writer for BusinessWeek in New York
We are living in very interesting times. I have said all along that Gettlefinger's tough talk was just a show for Union kool aid drinkers as he does an about face in the wake of Chrysler's sale to the private equity group, Cerberus. He know where his bread is buttered. However its interesting because the worm would turn and the UAW would be sitting in management's seat if this health care deal goes through. I wonder how how they will spin reduced benefits to the membership after years of fighting to keep costly entitlements?
Stayed tuned, the UAW contract with GM will expire this September so there will be ground breaking announcements to come...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
