Two sides of the healthcare benefit coin

The recent GM strike highlights something important about healthcare benefits in our country. GM has historically been one of the most generous providers of healthcare to its employees. In fact, they've been so giving that employee and retiree healthcare has been something of an albatross around the company's neck. Now GM has worked out a deal to end the strike that's shocking: The company has agreed to put $35 billion into a union-run trust fund that will provide healthcare to retirees. By contrast, some small employers don't even provide healthcare and some entrepreneurs don't have it for themselves! On the other side is Wal-Mart, which is now offering better healthcare plans for its employees that start at about $100/year -- this from the company that's earned so much ire for its treatment of workers. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has cut most of its generic drug prices down to $4. So when you go to the doctor, bring the Wal-Mart list of cheap prescriptions and ask your doctor if any discounted drugs would work for you before he or she writes the prescription. This will help you take control of your healthcare. Clark is a big believer in people taking control of this part of their lives. He doesn't think that employers should offer healthcare to employees. He prefers that each individual or family should buy its own coverage. The future of healthcare in our country is going one of two ways: Either we'll have socialized medicine or people will have to provide it for themselves.