I read John Mackey's editorial on healthcare reform and was surprised by two things:
First: It's an intelligent rebuttal of the plan proposed by Obama and congressional Democrats. It's refreshing to see opposition that doesn't involve shouting and violence at town hall meetings.
Second: Nobody here seemed to think any of his ideas had any merit. I try to explain the value in a few of them below.
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's not kidding! The federal government is in debt up to it's neck, and it isn't far from drowning. This is exactly the wrong time to be considering ANY new spending, yet Obama continues to mortgage our future, in hopes that our children and grandchildren will be generous enough to work their asses off to pay for our largess.
Just because the American people "need" healthcare doesn't mean we can afford it.
Equalize the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.
This should have been done years ago. I harp on here about individual health insurance from time to time, and I think had this sort of tax situation been in place years ago, we wouldn't be having a healthcare debate at all.
Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
He's speaking to the future mandates that Obama's plan will impose on health insurers, namely forcing them to cover pre-existing conditions. If you have a pre-existing condition and you don't have insurance, insurance is not for you. Insurance is about risk. A pre-existing condition isn't a risk, it's a liability. What you really need is a loan. I can see the government being the lender of last resort in situations where people are financially unable to pay medical bills themselves, but it should still be a loan of some sort.
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.
Malpractice has been a serious problem for too many years. Recouping medical costs is one thing, getting huge payouts for pain and suffering is another. Is one person's pain and suffering worth more than the pain and suffering of countless other people who won't be able to seek care because a specialist screwed up one procedure out of the thousands he or she has performed over the years?
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?
Obama's all about transparency, right?
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.
Revenues are down (economy) and expenditures are up (people are living longer). It's a pyramid scheme which could invert at any time.
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.
Replace that "donate to president campaign" box on the 1040 with "donate to people who can't afford healthcare" and I'm certain far more people would chip in. Here in Illinois, there are a number of donation options you can choose when you file your taxes. The feds should do this too.
He's also spot on about healthcare not being a right. A right is something the government cannot take away from you. A right is not something the government provides for you. The difference is absolutely crucial, and to misrepresent healthcare as a right is to cheapen to debate as badly as those on the right who are screaming nonsense about death panels, socialism, and whatever else.
If nothing else, I hope those of you in favor of Obama's plan can see that Mr. Mackey has tried to address the healthcare debate in an intelligent way, rather than the stupidity we see on display from anti-reformers at the town hall meetings. There are people (like Mr. Mackey and myself) who oppose the reforms Obama is seeking and don't feel the need to act like a loon about it. I doubt I've convinced anyone here to change their minds, even a little, about Obama's plan, or about boycotting Whole Foods, but I needed to post this anyway.
One other thing to consider is that there's no reason we can't enact some (or all) of John Mackey's ideas in addition to Obama's plan. They're not mutually exclusive.