GM's Get-Well Plan

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Perhaps the greatest significance of the coming GM-UAW deal is that it's another step in the decline of employer-sponsored health care. UAW president Ron Gettelfinger says he would prefer a single-payer system, which would relieve the burden for both GM and the union. That won't fly, but presidential candidates will offer other ideas. The crisis in Detroit shows, in the extreme, that corporate paternalism in the form of health insurance has outlived its usefulness. GM's biggest mistake may have been to assume that it would always be strong enough to handle the promises it made in its powerful prime. No company--and no worker--can afford to make that assumption anymore. This new reality requires a new covenant.