BOYCOTT WHOLE FOODS

Rebuttal to John Mackey’s Wall Street Journal  Op-Ed
“The Whole Foods Alternative to ‘ObamaCare’”
By Joel A. Harrison, PhD, MPH 
John Mackey’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal is merely a continuation of the myths propagated by the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries and the right-wing think tanks they fund. His suggestions would take us farther in the [...]

WHAT DOES OUR CONSTITUTION “GUARANTEE”?
According to Mr. Mackey: “A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America.”
Neither does our Federal or State Constitutions include a right to education, [...]

Does health reform mean a “government take-over” AND WHAT ROLE DOES GOVERNMENT PLAY IN HEALTHCARE TODAY? 
Neither the current Democrat’s Affordable Health Choice Act, HR 3200, nor the single-payer bill, HR-676, involve a “government take-over” of health care. In either case, care will be delivered by the private sector. However, any form of insurance requires regulations [...]

Repealing mandates on what insurance must cover & state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines:
Mackey writes: “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 [...]

HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS and WHY THEY DON’T WORK:
Mackey writes: “Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the [...]

Medicare reform and Medicare finances: 
Medicare is subject to the same cost pressures as the private sector. Yet, Medicare has done a better job of containing costs than the private sector.[1]
Medicare’s administrative costs are approximately 3% compared with the private sectors 15%. Unfortunately, the Bush administration and Republicans pushed Medicare Advantage to get seniors into [...]

Wait times here and abroad (including emergencies):
According to John Mackey, “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.”
How would Mackey rate the [...]

Medical liability – Tort Reform:
Mackey writes: “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.”
According to a recent CBO study: “Some so-called defensive medicine may be motivated [...]

Healthy life styles:
Mackey writes: “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 [...]