Paper of Friggin' Record

From a New York Times article about the GM/UAW agreement, a contract with an important new feature, a health care trust called a voluntary employee benefit association, or VEBA:

Beyond the bookkeeping effect of VEBAs, the health care funds could create a kind of incentive for Detroit companies and the union to modify their behavior.

Paying the high borrowing costs caused by their low debt ratings meant the Detroit companies had to keep wringing profits from big vehicles like sport utilities and pickups, rather than shifting to the smaller models with better fuel economy that consumers were demanding.

Likewise, U.A.W. members, assured of health care benefits that were the envy of the labor movement, had little incentive to take better care of their health, since their generous coverage would pay for most any ailment.

Who writes this stuff? And who edits it?

Union members had little incentive to take care of their health? Um, you mean, aside from the fact that being sick sucks? Do we have any data that shows that UAW members lived unhealthy lifestyles because their generous coverage would pay for them to be treated? As they say in the vernacular, WTF??!!

Like the main thing deterring people from having a heart attack is worrying about how to pay for it?

Like lung cancer is amenable to treatment, if you have the right coverage?

Like diabetes is a real fun time, if you don't have to worry about paying for your insulin, blood tests, and regular doctor visits?

When was the last time you heard someone say 'Golly, if only I could worry about my blood sugar level with every meal ... but I don't have generous health coverage, so I have to live healthy'?

Were there UAW people wandering around saying, "Monitor my sugars? Why? Yeah, I could lose a toe, but what the hey, I'm covered", or "Charlie, pour me another. Sure I'll need a liver transplant, but I'm a UAW man, so it'll be paid for"?

How does one write a sentence like that? Who does reporter Micheline Maynard hang out with in her Dickensian world where the only thing standing between them and rampant, morally degenerate profligacy is the stinginess of their insurance plans? Do they thank their lucky stars that so many Americans live if constant fear, dutifully ignoring the early signs of illness instead of visiting a doctor they can't pay for? Do they chatter amongst themselves about the exemplary health of Wal-Mart workers, with their 'strong incentive' to take better care of their health?

And now that the union will be administering the fund that pays for the insurance, what does she think is going to happen? They'll suddenly stop 'stickin' it to the Man' by getting sick? Or they'll just decide to expose the older members in the woods of the Upper Peninsula? In what way does she expect they will 'modify their behavior' as they now, she claims, will have "a kind of incentive" to do?

Sadly, the article leaves that unanswered. We'll never know.