Clear Policy Choice for General Motors

Sat, May 28, 2005

Its 5.2 billion yearly spending on health care is having a tremendous impact on its profitability, whereas only 18,000 people in the U.S. per year die because they’re uninsured.

GM employs 324,000 people (not all Americans, but let’s not get bogged down in details). If it dropped all of its insurance, approximately 20 of its employees would then die in the next year (since they’ve previously had health care, this wouldn’t quite be as likely, but the stress of losing it would compensate).

Now, is one life worth 260 million dollars? No. Of course not. What kind of damn fool question is that?