GM on a crash course with health care costs

Because of its aging workforce and army of retirees, GM has reached a health care crisis before the rest of the country. But GM's battle with the beast may well be a preview of what the United States as a whole will be facing in coming years.

GM has staked its future on an unlikely crusade against the most expensive and sloppy medical system in the industrialized world.

The fact that in 12 years those efforts have scarcely helped prompts a frightening question: If health costs are driving one of the most powerful companies in the world deep into financial difficulty, how bad will the health care crisis be for the rest of us?

At his desk, Bradley can look at the data and see prescription trends and demographic projections. When he looks long enough, he can see the monster emerging.

Every second of every day, GM pays for a medical procedure; every two seconds, it pays for a prescription. Last year, it wrote checks to 500,000 doctors, 35,000 pharmacies, 5,000 hospitals, 120 HMOs and 80 insurance companies.