LOS ANGELES - Nissan North America Inc. will drop comprehensive health care coverage for retired manufacturing employees age 65 and over.

Instead, Nissan will pay retirees an annual stipend starting at $2,500. The stipend will rise 3 percent each year. Retirees who turned 65 before Jan. 1, 2006, will keep comprehensive coverage.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Co., is getting ahead of a problem that haunts General Motors and Ford Motor Co. GM estimates that health care for its U.S. workers and retirees adds $1,525 to the cost of each vehicle.

The changes apply to 12,200 salaried and hourly employees at Nissan's manufacturing division.

Employees at company headquarters in California and at the technical center in Michigan are not affected.

In a letter to employees, Nissan said it has about 500 retirees. The company says that number is expected to grow to 3,500 by 2015.

"Some of our Detroit competitors were very strong just a few years ago," Nissan wrote in the letter. "Today they are struggling. We want to manage our costs."

Steve Keller, a former Nissan employee who retired in 2000 and turns 65 this year, says he feels "screwed."

"When I retired, Nissan said they would continue our current health care plan," he said. "Twenty-five hundred dollars won't go very far."

 

That was nice of them.

 

Must be nice to have a company in the first place that gives you any kind of retirement package.
While I almost feel bad for them, the fact I will probably get nothing for retirement from my company, and these same baby boomer nissan employees will bankrupt my social security or inflation will make whats left almost worthless I really can't feel that bad. There getting screwed. I am getting screwed worse I guess.

 

I predict that in the next five to ten years, you can expect every major corporation, in or outsied the automotive industry, that currently offers a traditional pension plan and/or health care plan to do one of two things; change what they offer substantially OR file bankruptcy.

 

Just a thought...

Instead of trying to figure out how to pay for these astronomical healthcare costs, why don't we try to figure out why HMOs and the medical industry is able to charge such high prices in the first place?

Like killing weeds... we are killing the green weed we see out of the ground, but the root is where the problem is.

I went to the dentist on 6Dec05, for a regular cleaning, check up, and bite-wing Xrays. No problems - I have the most incredibly healthy teeth and gums... my doctor (for 17 years - same guy) even commented to me that I am "one of those lucky people that has to do nothing but live and enjoy..."
$178 for my 20 minute visit.
My insurance (very good coverage too mind you) decided to pay $86 for the cleaning, exam, and bite wings.
I got a bill for the remaining $92.

I love my dentist - he's a great guy and he does great work, but $178 for 20 minutes in a chair is INSANE. I've known him for 24 years, went to school with his daughter (and son, but daughter and I were friends, son was 4 years younger than me and Deanne), and have been friends with their family for years outside the office. His pricing practice seems to be changing here lately though, and I have already decided that at my next visit, I am going to discuss this with him.
Heck, I'd be BETTER-OFF if I actually DID need major orthodontia...

Point is, $5 for a single Tylenol tablet while you are laying in a hospital bed is NO WORSE than a $500 toilet seat for the military IMO. We NEED to get a grip on this sh1+.

 

Maybe when med school is free and MRI's and other equipment cost $100 instead of $1 million you will get lower cost healthcare.

 

We're also paying for a lot of people that "Don't pay"...

Sad...

Instead of being proactive with our health, we just fix the symptoms (drugs.)

That's why I go to a good Chiropractor regularly and following their advice, am much healthier then I was before.

Think of it this way, would you just keep running on the same oil in your car and fix bearings as they fail? Or do you change your oil regulalry knowing that will extend the life of your engine? This same thinking needs to be applied to the medical industry. Sad thing is most medical doctors will not even recognize Chiropractors or other forms of "Preventative Medicine..."

 

There are lot's of issues involved but my personal opinion is that the best way to bring medical costs (and therefore, medical insurance) under control is to make individuals responsible for their own health care/health care insurance.

Ever increasing prices is the only thing you can expect when those who receive the services (the patients) are totally removed from the payment for those services - employers can't go on forever absorbing double-digit price increases for health care insurance year after year.

 

Absolute, 100%, total agreement.

We had a system that worked--individual insurance for catastrophic situations and pay-per-visit otherwise. This system was the envy of the world.

When the government and insurance companies stepped into the mix and encouraged employers to decouple the pennies from our individual pocketbook, suddenly the system is completely FUBAR.

What a shock.

 

The whole system is broken.
We focus on healthcare, or "treatments", instead of preventative programs.
The FDA needs to get control of the meat industries, to many steroids, vaccines, poor processing procedures...Japan just accepted some US beef, the first shipments had signs of Mad-Cow!(A fungal infection, btw- not "just" from eating other animals remains)...European market refuses our meat exports...etc..Genetically modified fruits and vegatables, the modifications transfer on to environmental plants, insects, and eventually people.
The 3rd leading cause of death and serious illness is, the Medical industry. (Pharma and Doctor/pushers)Over medicating, conflicting medications and just UN-safe medications.
Then the Insurance Cartel, milking the Life blood out of this country....a doctor must charge 3X what they need to make, in order to recieve the amount they NEED!
Without getting too involved, "an ounce of prevention is (still) worth a Pound of cure".

 

It's not just about making people pay, it's about the whole system which is utterly f'd up since it's all about making gaigaintic $$$ for the huge corporations. Capitalism is fine but we should be treating each other as human beings not licenses to print $$$.

 

I remember reading somewhere that the last 6 months a person is alive is the most expensive when it comes down to healthcare costs and etc. If I remembering it correctly I thought that article stated that the last 6 months of a person life was more expensive then almost all the years before combined.

If this indeed true, our problem has more to do with the huge costs involved with the final months of a sick persons life.

 

Maybe Geroge Bush should get involved... Nissan could do worse than make vehicles that are relevant...

Sorry couldn't resist. It just underlines how clinical Nissan/Toyota/Honda are towards the American worker... compared to the UAW led American worker. The Japanese automakers have more say in the running of their business despite the broken system they operate in.

 

"Mad cow" is a prion disease as are all the other spongiform encephalopathies, and it is transmitted from feeding on food that has contaminated tissues (ie ground up sick cows).

At any rate, I agree that there is too much emphasis on "magic bullet" medicine meant to cure after you get sick, and not enough on preventative medicine. That is why all of the socialized medicine nations focus more on prevenative. It is simply cheaper in the long run.

 

Yes, I know, and how the "tissue" became contaminated.
Virtually the same thing has been seen in deer, in goats(called scrapie), and even chickens and even fish(whirling disease) caused by farmland run off. Wild deer do not eat other dead or dying deer, they eat farm crops like contaminated wheat. There was a large outbreak across the southern states, it was eventually traced back to yeast/fungal infected seed. They had to install driers in the seed storage units, recalled massive amounts of wheat/seed etc...it could possibly a side effect of genetic modification of the wheat making it more suseptible to contamination.