It is with a heavy heart that I write this post...
Anyone that knows me, knows that I love me some Whole Foods. So you can only imagine my shock and disappointment when I read THIS recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal by John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, on health care reform.
Sadly,I will no longer be shopping there. There are only a few businesses that I shop at purely out of love and not necessity and WF was my absolute favorite. My "mecca" (as I have referred to it on several occations), Whole Foods introduced me aromatherapy, homeopathic products,and medicinal extracts. *sigh*
But you know what? This is a wonderful opportunity to shop for some of those specialty items that WF has always offered under one roof at some of the smaller, LOCALLY OWNED health and holistic stores in my community. That is what I should be doing anyway! I will miss my mecca, with it's ridiculous variety of foofoo foods, personal care products, suppliments, wine, and knowledgable staff... but it's time to practice what I preach. So I am voting with my dollars and voting with my feet.
First though, I feel morally obliged to publicly refute John Mackey's suggestions on health care:
SUGGESTION: Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).
What obsticles? I have access to a HSA through my employer. In fact, MOST of my friends do too! Of course, most of my friends have good high paying jobs that offer health care benefits in addition to HSAs and dependent care spending accounts... unfortunately I dont' know a single unemployed or underemployed person that has this option and even if they did, by definition, they are likely not in the position to take advantage of it!
It's worth going to the original article to hear Mackey describe his "generous" benefits to WF employees... and as I was reading it, I was thinking "big effin' deal, his employees are what? 22? With strong personal interests in healthy lifestyles? Their average health care costs are unusually low! And few of those employees make enough to afford out of pocket costs for preventative care with a $2,500 deductable!" Then, I can across this highly critical article on WF business practices that confirmed and fleshed out my speculations:
"For nearly 2 decades Whole Foods CEO and co-founder John Mackey has managed to maintain his multimillionaire status while Whole Foods employees remain in the $8 - $13 hourly wage. With a turnover rate of 25% per year and an average employee span of only 4 years, most “team members” will never reap the benefits of seniority."Yep, that sounds about right.
SUGGESTION: Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.
Now, while I TOTALLY understand why people say such laws are "anti-free market", blah, blah, blah... I will tell you that personally I think limiting insurance companies from competing nationwide has a tangible upside because it keeps all the insurance companies from identifying a single state with overly sympathetic (weak)representatives to all pile into (and to pour money into). While I know this rule can also be pointed to as the reason so many markets are essentially dominated by a monopoly, I would worry that health insurance would end up like the banking and credit card industries - with all the big companies fleeing to the state with the weakest regulation so as to maximize their profits. Yes Delaware, I'm looking at to you...
SUGGESTION: Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because it was debunked several times during the last administration, but businesses love to claim that if you just stopped holding them accountable and dipping into their profits, they will stop charging you so much. Bullshit. Tort reform has no correlation to the cost of health insurance. Quick examples can be found here and here and here.
SUGGESTION: Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
What does this even mean? I know how much my last doctor visit cost! I get a statement from my insurance company about my visit AND one from my doctors office confirming what the insurance company was billed, what they paid, and what my copay was. How hard is it to open and read a bill? If I am somehow missing Mackey's point, I appologize. Maybe he is looking for a broader sort of transparency? Well, I found THIS great website that allows users to "analyze their health care spending and make smarter decisions"! Sounds perfect! Maybe Mackey just isn't good with the google...
SUGGESTION:Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
Um... yep... The problem with this overly simplistic "solution" is that it treats Medicare like some kind of compartmentalized program, seperate and unique from the problems in the private health care sector. To reform Medicare IS to reform health care! The same unsustainable system responsible for the impending bankrupcy of Medicare is just as responsible for the sky rocketing insurance premiums in private health care! True "patient empowerment, choice and responsibility" are impossible without a total overhaul of the health care industry as a whole.
And last, but not least, my favorite of all his suggestions:
SUGGESTION: Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Uh huh. Really? Sure, I'll mention this to the folks I know that have paid taxes into this system for years and years and years - only to now find themselves without employer based insurance and a preexisting condition they can not afford to treat out of pocket but are also unable to qualify for affordable private plans. "Sorry about your luck but I'm sure the generous citizens of this fine country will be willing to check a box on their tax forms and throw some spare change your way..." Mackey should be embarrassed and ashamed.
As an added bonus, Mackey goes on to state:
"All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments."How is this different from what is going on HERE, now? Maybe he couldn't see the line from his mansion.
And so I have found that my "mecca" was no mecca at all... I was willing to turn a blind eye to suspicious behavior in the past. I didn't realize the extent of our differences. And as is often the case, I am confronted with the reality that my mecca is ME. The practices of WholeFoods and the beliefs of it's founder are not supportive of me and I am no longer supportive of them. Peace.
If you feel the same and would like to make those feelings heard at:
World Headquarters
Whole Foods Market, Inc.
550 Bowie Street
Austin, TX 78703-4644
512.477.4455
512.477.5566 voicemail
512.482.7000 fax
Or on their newly established Health Care Forum on their website.
