Big 3 Automakers Health Care Spending Drops: Their medical tab has dropped $2B since 2005, as they trimmed worker ranks and benefits

The Detroit News reports:

Detroit's Big Three automakers have dramatically shrunk their health care bills since 2005, while paring back the number of people covered.

In 2007, General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC spent $8.9 billion, down $2.1 billion from a record $11 billion in 2005, and covered 190,000 fewer people.

The dramatic reductions end an era when automakers saw yearly double-digit increases in health care costs in large part because they offered generous benefits at little or no cost to workers.

You can't run a profit making business like the City of Detroit or Chicago for too long without problems.