A Universal Bailout

The Big Three automakers are on the brink. So is America's health care system. Done right, bailing out Detroit could save both.

The story of the Big Three is, in many ways, the story of the Lansing Craft Centre, a now-shuttered GM plant, which every now and again I drove past when I lived in Michigan. Twelve years ago, this is where GM built the EV1, the world's first mass production electric car. The last vehicle built at the Craft Centre, before the plant closed in 2006, was the terribly conceived Chevy SSR -- a low-riding, gas-guzzling, racing truck that looked to be the illegitimate offspring of a Tonka designer and a GM exec after a wild night at the county fair.

Four hundred people used to work at the Lansing Craft Centre, and the irony of a potential bailout is surely not lost on them. GM in particular wants a cash infusion to stave off imminent bankruptcy, in part so it can move forward with the Chevy Volt, an electric concept car scheduled for production in 2010. That's right: GM wants taxpayer dollars so it can build the same car it ditched a decade ago in favor of the El Camino-inspired, utterly purposeless SSR.

Americans are right to wonder why, with their terrible track record, the automakers should get a cent from taxpayers. It's true that the Big Three have earned their hard-fought demise, after years of lobbying against CAFE standards and resisting reform. That's why if we bail out the autos, they should bail us out, too.

Any rescue package should jumpstart President-elect Obama's proposed health care plan by giving Big Three autoworkers the option of enrolling in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. The FEHBP is the basis for Obama's plan to offer high-quality, affordable health care to every American. Autoworkers could be the first wave of participants in the plan, paving the way for the rest of us.

Detroit would jump at the opportunity. The automakers have been struggling for years with employee health care expenses that add more than $1,500 to each and every car that rolls off an assembly line in the US. Offloading the cost of health benefits to the federal government would be a huge savings on the balance sheets of the Big Three and help make them competitive with Asian manufacturers. The UAW would embrace this idea as well, because it offers the same excellent coverage for its workers that member of Congress enjoy.

The Big Three and the rank and file would benefit, but so would every American. Adding a health care provision to the bailout presents the quickest path to universal health care. It would help erode longstanding industry roadblocks to a national health care plan in two ways. First, other sectors of the economy -- particularly other manufacturers -- would be envious of the auto industry's enormous competitive advantage and quickly warm to President Obama's health care plan, seeking the same cost savings for themselves. Second, such a move would unseat the power of big health care constituencies that have long opposed reform, by pitting them against the symbolic backbone of American manufacturing. The health care lobby wouldn't stand a chance against other industries trying desperately to stay afloat in today's wretched economy.

Suddenly, universal health care is no longer the construct of "socialist redistributors" on the left. It has industry backing, which is key to the political viability of health care reform. It's a pro-business idea, as American as a Corvette in a Thanksgiving Day parade. In other words, it's something that Joe the Plumber, Rick the CEO, and Rosie the UAW Riveter can all get behind.

The Big Three may well deserve to fail, but bailing them out could put us on the path to universal health care. In the words of Chevy's marketing moguls, that would be a true "American Revolution."

Read More:
Should the Government Bail Out the Big Three U.S. Automakers? HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In

Comments

[Thermodynamics]

I am totally in favor of a fix for healthcare.

Just funding the existing system is not enough. If the government simply paid for conventional health insurance for each of us we would still be in a bind.

The system really is broken. We pay twice as much for drugs as people in other countries. Many procedures are irrationally expensive by European standards -- $5000 for a colon exam. We need a comprehensive reform in addition to a single payer system:

1. A solid public health system for things like childhood vaccinations and disease prevention.
2. A legitimate EPA to get the diesel fumes, etc. out of city air. Asthma anyone?
3. An FDA that works for the people, not big pharma.
4. We need some sort of national standard for the practice of medicine. Right now, big pharma has the pulpit and they simply tell MDs to use more of product XYZ.
5. And finally, we need a system that stresses prevention, because a healthy person is the most economical.

[Jp2]

Thats a great idea.Tell that to the 75 year old retiree who has an 800.00 pension he's living on.Hey take three or four hundred a month and buy healthcare now with that lavish pension you have!!!! You let the big three fail and watch cities and towns all over the country go bankrupt.Than whos going to pay for the teachers,firemans and policemans pensions when the tax base drys up!!!!!!!

[JBS]

As long as that 75 year old retiree gets the same coverage that Congressional retirees get AT THE SAME PRICE Congressional retirees pay, i.e. "FREE", I don't see where they would have any complaint.

[Robert Reed - Huffpost Blogger]

This is an idea worth discussing in Detroit and D.C. Thanks for connecting the dots, Ben.

[sweetuniverse]

Good ideas here. I hope folks in Detroit and Washington reading!

[hopeless277]

I say as long as The Government is spending money we don't have, why not just cut a check to every American for $100,000,000.00? Then we could all be multimillionaires and spend our money on $20,000.00 plane rides and everything would be ok. I mean we can pay back a sextillion dollar loan as easily as a trillion dollar loan, right?

[hippynanainblingland]

I'd be happy with $100,000 per person. Think of what that would do for the economy!