John Mackey, as CEO of Whole Foods, must enjoy angering his customers. Mackey's recent Wall Street Journal editorial show how he parrots Republican talking points, like a dutiful foot soldier. He uses talking points from Frank Luntz, wordsmith of the Republican anti-change agenda.
Look how he lifts his ideas from Luntz's anti-Health Care Reform memo:
Luntz:
You’ll notice we recommend the phrase “government takeover”
Mackey:
the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system.
Luntz:
Nothing else turns people against the government takeover of healthcare than the realistic expectation that it will result in delayed and potentially even denied treatment, procedures and/or medications.
Mackey:
All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.
Note that this ignores the fact that we have health care rationing: insurance companies deny paying for needed treatment, and those who can't afford it don't get all the treatment they need.
Luntz:
The arguments against the Democrats’ healthcare plan must center around “politicians,” “bureaucrats,” and “Washington”
Mackey:
citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive
Luntz:
the high cost of healthcare is still public enemy number one ...But you can and should blame it on the waste, fraud, and abuse that is rampant in anything and everything the government controls.
Mackey:
Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars.
Huh? Where does he get this, without citing any reasons or statistics. It is laughable when he goes on to say:
What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
As if any individual customer can go to an insurer and say "I'd like you to cover this, this, and this. And make it snappy, will you Aetna?" Only the largest negotiating groups (employers, unions, etc.) have that ability, and they are always compromising to keep costs down.
Now, Luntz realizes that just being the party of "No" doesn't win many points with the American people. You have to appear to be for something, even as you vote No on every issue.
Luntz:
You simply MUST be vocally and passionately on the side of reform.
Mackey hammers this one three times:
While we clearly need health-care reform, ....(anti-reform paragraph follows).
...
Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone
...
Health-care reform is very important.
Luntz:
Americans will expect the government to look out for those who truly can’t afford healthcare.
Mackey sort of follows this, but doesn't claim to believe it himself, and then has to get in a dig against people who believe this:
Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?
Luntz:
Shift the healthcare focus to “preventative treatments” and “early detection.” Tell people that the single best way to reduce healthcare costs is to promote “wellness.”
Mackey covers this in spades, while also trying to boost his Whole Foods share price by trying to post health food as the solution:
Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.
Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.
And what are Mackey's 8 "reforms"
- Repeal laws regarding HSA'sHe then goes on to advertise Whole Foods's health care plan. Must be recruiting season. It's nice to say Whole Foods contributes "up to $1800" of the $2500 deductible that employees must pay. But that benefit depends on seniority, and starts at a paltry $300. Probably small consolation to the new hire having to cover up to $2200/year before their deductible kicks in and start paying. This really is a more generous version of the Wal-Mart high-deductible plan.
- Tax breaks (standard Republican answer for any question).
- Repeal laws.(another standard Republican answer)
- Repeal more laws.
- Tort Reform. Taking rights away from citizens is fun for Republicans.
- Make costs transparent. Probably the only actual good idea in his memo. But he doesn't say how. You'd pretty much have to mandate that the insurance companies do it, or they'd be doing it already. Hmmm. Doesn't this contradict 1, 3, and 4?
- Medicare reform. Zero specifics plus internal contradictions ("face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility." You can't increase patient empowerment and choice by cutting costs. Patient choice in Medicare is limited by doctors refusing to accept Medicare patients, because Medicare can't afford what many doctors prefer to charge.)
- "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." Wow! Just give up on the whole thing and make it easier for citizens to shoulder the burden out of their own wallets. As charity. Push it onto the empathetic dupes who are my customers. Very empathethic, John.
So, it is sad to realize that in the debate about the nation's health care, all the CEO of a health food company has to offer is:
- Cutting and pasting Republican talking points
- Come and work at Whole Foods: we have great benefits.
- Come and shop at Whole Foods: we have great low-fat vegetables.