Whole Foods CEO Says Health Care is a Privilege, Not a Right – UPDATE -CEO Blog is Openly Selecting Posts

Mr. Mackey,
Your ideas are nothing more than the same old tired Conservative talking points, that no doubt will profit no one but elitist CEOs and stockholders like yourself. What you call “reform”, people who have actually had to use their health-care call “kicking the can down the road”.

HSA’s are a TERRIBLE idea and are currently very ineffective. Deregulating the insurance companies? Are you insane, that’s like letting the fox to guard the hen-house. Tax-Cuts? Oh yeah, the insurance companies making even more money will translate into better care and not larger dividends.

Sure snooty rich people like yourself can enjoy the best health care. It sounds like you’ve probably never had to experience what the system is like in the trenches. The endless bills and threats from hospitals while the insurance companies and doctors fight over money. You’ve probably never had to wait over a month to see your primary care physician or been forced to choose from a poor selection of doctors. You probably have no problem paying thousand dollar deductibles, and can probably afford the best doctors regardless of insurance.

So why should you care about health-care? Well isn’t it obvious? Your companies bottom line. Maybe you’ll get some tax breaks for being so generous enough to offer health-care, or, you might even be able to kick people off altogether if the system implodes, as it will, if no reform is in-acted. Or maybe it’s to get those stupid HSAs which may even be based on your employees investing in your companies stock? Or maybe it’s as pure and simple as you and your elite buddies being able to avoid having to pay higher taxes? Yeah that’s probably it.

Apparently you and your share holders don’t feel your ridiculously expensive prices bring in enough cash to satisfy your deep pockets, so you shovel your elitist agenda on gullible middle and lower class citizens, like so many naive commenters here (many of whom can’t even afford to shop at your market). Don’t you guys ever have enough money?

We rank 37th, behind Costa Rica in taking care of our citizens.

We suffer greater illness by having so many uninsured and under-insured who don’t get preventive care and spread disease.

We spend too much money for insufficient care.

Healthy Americans means a stronger work force.

The current system is imploding anyway and is unsustainable. We could see the number of insured triple, if we don’t take action.

Health care is a RIGHT, contrary to what you say, not a privilege and other countries DO treat it as a right, despite your sophistry.

Having a bureaucrat between you and your doctor already exists, it’s called an insurance adjuster, and they don’t just stand between your care, they profit from kicking you off the minute you get sick, leaving you to die.

Oh but you have all the answers don’t you?

Mr. Mackey. You are rich. It easy for you to talk of Socialism because you are afraid of losing your ultra-elite status (a meaningless fear). What’s worse, you infect Americans with your unrealistic ideas and dishonest claims.

You spout out these blank words of American patriotism and capitalism. Well sir, you are everything that is wrong with this country. I hope someday you will see the light and have to endure the miserable insurance you offer at your company and not the premium insurance you enjoy and don’t need.

Lastly, Your article needlessly injects your politics into your business. Many of the people who are supporting you here are not only not your target demographic, they aren’t even your geographic (by the odds based on recent polling data). Those who support Obama and health-care reform are the ones you risk losing. This demonstrates to me your level of intelligence and further more, the value of your words.

I did shop at your store, when I could afford it. You will never receive a single dime of my money again. I cringe at the thought that even a single penny of my money has supported your lavish life-style, which affords you the time to write Op-Ed pieces in the Conservative WSJ (which apparently isn’t even Conservative enough for you).

You have made your bed,
Maybe some rest will shut your big mouth!

Wise1@soapbloxdotcom

SECOND LETTER TO MACKEY
Mr. Mackey,

I wrote you an honest letter and despite the fact I did not curse or tell any lies, I was rejected, likely for purely marketing reasons. You can’t have people making the boss look bad now can you? Can you censor?

You are manipulating the truth and your correspondence. You are painting a picture that makes it seem as if you actually have some support. You know that Huffington Post is going to be all over you, especially when it gets out of your selective posting.

No wonder I see so many right wing wackos on here. Do you think this helps your cause?

I have already told 6 people last night and this morning, not to shop at your store. Imagine how many I will have by the end of the week?

I’m afraid you are going to find out what “word-of-mouth” advertising actually is! Certainly not from just me, from the masses of customers you have thrown into the fire from your political blunder.

I think you underestimate the Left. Unfortunately, this is your prime clientele.

-anom

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LETTER FROM JCB REGARDING CANADIAN HEALTH CARE:
Dear John,

This morning I spoke with a number of your Canadian store managers and they have indicated to me that a considerable number of Canadian WF employees are concerned that you have not accurately described or given a fair assessment of the Canadian Universal Single Payer Health Care Plan, which all but one or two per cent of Canadians think is a good system, and which has no co-pays and no deductibles. Many of these Canadian WF employees have now written to you and to WF and I hope that you will share all of their comments with the American public so that the misrepresentations which you and many others in the U.S. have made about the Canadian system can be corrected.

You state that health care is not an intrinsic right in Canada, yet every Canadian has the availability of Universal Single Payer Health Care, regardless of their economic status, age, or pre-existing conditions. The overwhelming majority of Canadians would assert that they have a right to good health care and receive it under their system.

Contrary to what you suggest and what many opponents of true health care reform suggest, physicians in Canada do not have to ask permission of government bureaucrats as to whether they can perform one procedure or another, unlike in the U.S. where they are frequently mandated to seek permission from a private insurance company bureaucrat before they can treat their patients.

The long waiting lists which you describe includes all those people who have made doctor’s appointments for the near future, who are not being delayed, and do not reflect as serious a backlog problem as you suggest. It is true that it can be hard to find a GP in Canada who does not have a full client load and walk in clinics have been established to offset this situation which arises because people in Canada can go to their GP any time they feel ill, which results in excellent Primary Care and eliminates costly and disastrous conditions which arise if people did not have Universal Health Care and delay going to the doctor or do not go at all because they could not afford to pay the deductible or co- pay or can not get insurance at all, which is so common in the U.S. This kind of good Primary Care would save the U.S. billions of dollars a year in addition to improving the quality of peoples’ lives.

People in Canada and in the rest of the modern industrialized world look with pity on people in the U.S. because we do not have the good health care systems that they do. In the U.S. the bankruptcy rate because of medical situations has now reached sixty per cent or better, yet citizens in the rest of the modern world do not have to suffer these kinds of economic disasters in conjunction with medical ones.

The essence of this debate is whether health care is a human right or a privilege and the U.S. is the only country in the modern industrialized world which does not yet view health care as a basic human right. With more than 50 per cent of the physicians in this country and more than 50 per cent of our citizens favoring a government based health care alternative, perhaps we will soon see real change.

All of the suggestions which you outline in your points would be moot if a single payer universal health care system were to be established. This is the most economically, socially, and morally responsible thing to do. Rather than increasing our national cost of health care, a single payer plan would provide the greatest cost efficiencies in delivering health care to all U.S. citizens without restricting the freedom to the doctor of your choice.

Though I an a native Texan, I have lived in Canada and have had first hand experience with the Canadian Universal Single Payer Health Care System and like most people who have experienced it, I find little resemblance between the reality of its good service provided in the plan and the disastrous picture which you paint of it.

Almost six years ago, one of my daughters who lives in Victoria, B.C. Canada gave birth to her second son, and he was born with a club foot. Being a good mother, she researched the various treatment options and information from around the world. She found that the conventional treatment of surgery in a hospital to cut the achilles tendon, then re-position the foot followed by putting it in a cast for several months, and then physical therapy was only 70 to 80 per cent successful and usually resulted in ankle problems once the child reached their twenties or thirties. She found another method, devised by an old doctor in Ohio who had been brought out of retirement so he could teach other doctors his non-surgical and highly successful treatment method, which involved multiple manipulations of the foot, multiple castings, and physical therapy and required more of the doctors real time than the one surgery in a hospital. She found an Orthopedic Surgeon in her own home town who had been trained in this method. There was no waiting or delay for my grandson to be treated, the doctor did not have to call a government bureaucrat to ask permission for the less conventional method which my daughter had free choice of, and of course there were no co-pays, deductibles , or expenses other than the regular health insurance premium payments, which are adjusted according to income. My almost six year old grandson is a very active, rambunctious child and one would never guess that he had been born with a club foot. There are a far more overwhelming number of stories like this about the Canadian system than there are instances of failures or problems.

It is time for people in the U.S. to realize that continuing to patch up the antiquated tractor of our health care and insurance is not economically sound, nor can it deliver services in an efficient and modern way. It is time for us to realize that we meed a modern health care tractor, just like all the other modern industrialized countries of the world have had since the last century.

with my best regards,

JCB

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LETTER FROM KARYL:

Those who have noticed a high number of supporters for Mr. Mackey are correct that they are being directed here by right-wing blogs. Notice the high number of people who say “I will be a new customer” or “I wish there was one in our town.” They’ve never even been there before, so I’m sure they’ll find their way there now for that tofu and hummus they’ve all been longing for. Obviously a sad attempt to make it appear that WFM is going to gain more customers than it will lose by Mr. Mackey’s “brave” stance against universal health coverage . . . not to mention his equally courageous stance that Americans have no right to food, which we have heretofore paid a lot for at WFM. I drive by the WFM HQ every day, and have shopped there since WFM #1 was created, as well as at the precursor stores. That is over for now. In the meantime, as one supporter said, by all means, “stay the coarse (sic)!” The most tragic comment made so far — on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, no less — is about how the store that hippies made, which we used to refer to affectionately as the “Whole Hippie,” isn’t just for worthless hippies any more. Touche. All I can say is, a lot of that generation who self-identified as hippies, most notably those opposed to the Vietnam War, now has a hell of a lot of money they will be spending somewhere else. Sir, your new chosen demographic, if their comments are to be believed, should be flocking to your stores at any moment — enjoy!

Karyl

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LETTER FROM KAREN:

Mr. Mackey,

My husband and I are shareholders and regular shoppers of your Tustin store since the days of Mrs. Gooches. We spend $250.00/week in your store. We are selling our shares and will no longer shop in your stores. We are in S. Calif. so we have many options. And we choose to shop at a store that does not show blatant disrespect for its shoppers and its employees. By mouthing off about something you know nothing about (government-run healthcare for all just like members of Congress and their families get) you show obvious arrogance. But not only that, by inciting this boycott, you take the money out of the pockets of your wonderful employees and their families. What a stupid move. You just had to express your ignorant opinion no matter the cost. Well, now you’re paying the price. Everyone I know is boycotting your store because of your hubris. Great job.

Karen

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LETTER FROM KARREN:

Dear Mr. Mackey,
Not only am I a shopper at your store but also an employee. When I first started working for your company in 2006, it was because I had been a vegan for 12 years, mostly eating whole grains and veggies, raw foods and the like. I was very concerned about my diet and well being. Unfortunately, that same year, I was diagnose with Stage III Colo-rectal cancer at the age of 26. It was a genetic disease that I didn’t know ran in my family. I was dismayed because I thought I was doing everything right.
It’s not so easy to get private health care when you have something like this in your past. You typically get denied by health insurance companies. I also spend a lot of time fighting denials of my medical claims. I have to be very careful when choosing jobs now as they have to have an insurance plan that covers the many trips to the doctor’s I have to make each year. I have a Master’s Degree and am a trained teacher but have to question whether I can go this path because I can not use Kaiser, the plan the state offers. High deductibles, private health insurance plans, charity, and healthy eating are not always the answer…and I’m sorry (though not surprised) that you feel the way you do and help you will educate yourself some more about the issue.

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I would have put together more though the discovery of the fact that my own letter was discarded while watching so many conservatives get heralded upon the Whole Foods loudspeaker only provoked me further to action.

Enough is enough!