Rapidly rising health-care costs have weighed down the automotive industry, William Ford Jr., chief executive officer of Ford Motor, told industry executives Wednesday.
Despite cutting costs by billions of dollars over the past few years, Ford Motor's (F: news, chart, profile) medical liabilities are threatening its fiscal health, said the executive, who has been at the helm for the past three years. His great-grandfather, Henry Ford, started the company.
"In 2000, we paid $2 billion for employee health care," Ford told the audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "In 2003, those costs rose to $3.2 billion."
The $1.2 billion rise in benefits for Ford's 500,000 employees adds about $1,000 to the price of each car the company manufactures and cannot be sustained, Ford said.
"We spend more on health care than we do on steel," he added. |
