The Big Three Automakers Push For Single Payer

Last updated on June 9th, 2012 at 10:10 am

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The Big Three automakers, GM,Chrysler and Ford along with the Canadian Autoworkers pushed the Canadian government to strengthen their single payer system.

"The public health care system significantly reduces total labour costs for automobile manufacturing firms, compared to the cost of equivalent private insurance services purchased by U.S.-based automakers; these health insurance savings can amount to several dollars per hour of labour worked.

Publicly funded health care thus accounts for a significant portion of Canada's overall labour cost advantage in auto assembly, versus the U.S., which in turn has been a significant factor in maintaining and attracting new auto investment to Canada."

This is a complete slap in the face to the Republicans and some conservative Democrats who say it will hurt business. The automakers urged the Canadian government to fix the problems in the system that was caused by underfunding the program.

"Canada's publicly funded health care system is now facing demographic, technological, and fiscal pressures. The erosion of publicly funded health care – through measures such as the delisting of currently-covered services, the imposition of user fees, the failure of the public system to keep up with the changing nature of health care, and new costs such as prescription drugs and home-care, – will impose significant costs on automotive employers and undermine the attractiveness of Canada as a site for new automotive investment."

In fact these corporations will even endure higher taxes if necessary saying,

"To this end, General Motors and CAW-Canada jointly urge the federal and provincial governments to take appropriate actions to preserve the public health care system, secure its funding base, and modernize the range of services which it covers."

So with this joint letter to Canada, the Big Three automakers have given progressives that ammunition to fight back against the tall tale that universal healthcare is bad for business. If it was, why would they be pushing for it to be stronger.

Read the entire letter here.