About a week ago, John Mackey, the co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods — the organic, natural grocery store chain, set off a bit of a firestorm on the left by writing an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. The reason that I say that it’s caused a bit of a firestorm on the left is the op-ed caused a number of blog posts on liberal sites like DailyKos that have been promoting a boycott of Whole Foods. We also know that it is “conventional wisdom” that only the left shops in stores like Whole Foods and are the only people who care about the environment. Of course, much of “conventional wisdom” is pure silliness (just check my pantry cabinet and my organic vegetable garden). It’s also fair to say that Mr. Mackey is probably not a poster-child for a “conservative nut-job”. He’s a rational, centrist person who actually has broad experience in purchasing and using the health systems of the United States, Canada & Great Britain. His non-“right-wing” background makes him particularly dangerous to the left.
Any way, what did Mr. Mackey write that has gotten the left so upset? Mr. Mackey has the audacity of allowing his employees to vote on the health care choices that will be covered in his company’s plan. In addition, Mr. Mackey has the temerity to suggest that his Canadian and British employees ask for choice in their health care services…
At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments.
What’s worse is that he states that “every American adult is responsible for his or her own health [not the government].” He also points out that the health care “utopias” of Canada and Great Britain have some serious problems due to rationing:
Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor’s Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million.
He also addresses the falsehood that a government run system will be more cost efficient than the private sector by reminding readers that:
With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people’s money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.
He has a list of policy ideas that he’d like to see including competition across State lines, expand HSA’s, make tax treatment of health benefits consistent, etc. All logical, pro-choice positions that would put the individual back in charge of their health.
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Resolute Determination 