Coalition Of Companies Seeks Lower-Cost Health Coverage

WASHINGTON -- Several dozen major companies are banding together in an effort to provide lower-cost health coverage to their uninsured employees.

The coalition of more than 50 Fortune 500 companies say they can save more money by pooling their uninsured workers and seeking bids from health plans than they could individually.

The companies include IBM, Ford and Sears. They said their plan could eventually offer coverage to 4 million people, focusing on specific regions of the country, including Detroit, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles.

According to the employers launching the effort, more than 43 million Americans do not have health insurance.

Many companies have cut back on the number of workers they insure due to rapidly rising health care costs. Many companies employ an increasing number of contract workers, part-timers or consultants who do not receive health insurance.

The news of the coalition comes on the first day of Cover The Uninsured Week. Participating companies include:

ACS Aerojet ALCOA American Airlines Anheuser-Busch BellSouth Caterpillar Circuit City Cox Enterprises DTE Energy Eaton Emerson Electric EMC Federal-Mogul First Data Ford Motor

FPL Group Gap Inc. General Dynamics General Electric General Mills The Home Depot Honeywell IBM International Paper Johnson Controls Limited Brands Lockheed Martin Maersk Manpower Marathon Ashland Marathon Oil Marriott

McDonald's Parker Hannifin Prudential Financial Sears Shell Oil Starbucks Starwood Hotels & Resorts SYSCO Temple-Inland Texas Instruments Textron Toys 'R' Us United Parcel Service United Technologies Visteon