Not Making Things Better

mackey, whole, foods, discrimination, health care,
Okay, it's well established I'm not a fan of Bob Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods.

His latest idea to "fix" health care (from AmericaBlog) is spectacular:

Keep in mind that the guy who runs Whole Foods is a right-wing Republican nutjob. His latest brilliant idea is to give employees greater in-store discounts if they have lower blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and don't smoke. The idea is interesting, but also a bit unnerving. I have low blood pressure (good low blood pressure), but it's not because of anything I've ever done. It simply is. I've also been relatively skinny most of my life, again simply because I am. Why should I get more employee benefits for things I had zero control over? And an even bigger question, what does the Americans with Disabilities Act have to say about employers who decrease employee benefits based on their physical maladies (high blood pressure and high cholesterol)?

This is insane. I have no control over having porphyria. None. It's a genetic quirk, nothing more. So, because my blood pressure randomly skews from dangerously low to ER-doc-says-holy-shit! high, I will get a lower in store discount. I have done nothing to maintain my low weight (BMI) and low cholesterol. In fact, considering the crap that I tend to eat, I should have high both.

Things like blood pressure, BMI and cholesterol are far less controllable than you might think. My mother has had high cholesterol forever, and has been eating an extremely low fat diet forever. Her body pumps out way too much cholesterol. She can't control it. One of the lawyers here at work has a fantastic BMI, and dangerously high cholesterol. He eats right, exercises daily, and has had several stents put in. Another lawyer has a terrible BMI and fantastic cholesterol and blood pressure. He drinks scotch, smokes cigars, eats fatty foods, and according to his doctor, has the vascular system of a man half his age.

I think Bob Mackey should just go for it. I mean, high blood pressure and obesity are more common in African Americans, so let's give them a lower discount than whites. Latinos are more subject to diabetes, so they'll get a lower discount, too. Women are the only ones who get ovarian and cervical cancer, so they should get a lower discount as well.

I mean, if you're going to be discriminatory, own it. Go all the fucking way.

The Government Can't Do Anything Right

socialism, health care, obama, whole, foods, mackey, conservative, liberal, funny
MB Shopper, at the Whole Foods message boards, wins an internet for the following description of everything the government can't do right:

Sigh.

Once again, for the benefit of the goernment-can't-get-anything-right flock:

I AM AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE SHITHEEL

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and tTechnology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issed by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

----

And apparently, the Global Positioning Satellite system is POS, right?

The only reason government doesn't work is because conservative Republican administrations defunded and/or patronage staffed them with people with ties to special business interests: to wit the last FDA, Dept of Interior and Agriculture under Bush. No one seems to have a problem with pumping over $500Bil to the Defense Department which last I hear is a socialized entity.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if you don't like paying taxes, move to sunny Somalia. Your earnings will be entirely tax free.

John Mackey is a Moron

health care, mackey, conservative, liberal, deficit

John Mackey, of Whole Foods, has a solution to the health care crisis that won't cost us a dime. Eight solutions, in fact. Eight idiotic solutions that would do absolutely nothing to help the working poor or middle class, but would doubtless do wonders for the health care industry.

 1. 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. so, requiring people that don't have money for health care to pay more towards health care would solve our health care problems? define "our". For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.

Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.

think about this for a second. i have a $500 deductible. i rarely have $5 left over at the end of any given week, so for me, $500 may as well be $5,000,000. So, yes, I do have an incentive to spend the first $500, but not carefully. I have two choices: don't use health insurance at all (=death), or run up the $500 bill at the beginning of the year by going to the ER. the ER will send me bills, but i can pay them $5 a month and still use their services next time.

Mr. Mackey's theory seems to be that the reason health care is so expensive is that people just aren't being "careful" with their health insurance. he seems to think people are going to doctors for kicks, getting tests for fun, and just generally treating health care like Disneyland.

What planet is Mr. Mackey living on?

 4. 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. most of the mandates are aimed at coverage specific to women such as birth control, pap smears and cancer screening. beyond that, "individual customer preferences"? health care isn't a clothing store, and who "prefers" cancer treatments? and why should my health care be held hostage by what most people "prefer"? I'm sure most people aren't even aware of the needs of someone with porphyria, let along have a preference for them.

6.  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? does anyone here really think that choosing your treatments based on price is a good idea? oh, it's most often the way we choose, but not because it's a good idea. the fact of the matter is, if you need a treatment, surgery, medicine to save your life, you need it. the fact that it's more expensive than your house is irrelevant- or should be. you need it.

8. 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. fuck making sure tax paying Americans have health insurance- let's leave it to the chance that if there's a box to check, random strangers will donate enough to provide health insurance to those that need it. that's a way better strategy.

Then John Mackey makes the most appalling argument I have ever seen: 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? no, they have the same right to health care as they do to food and shelter. everyone should have food to eat, a roof over their head and health care when they need it. to argue that starving children and homeless people prove that i don't deserve affordable health insurance is . . . i'm not sure what to call that. sociopathic? i dunno.

Following the "Canadians die waiting in line" meme, we get this (from the owner of Whole Foods, remember):

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. if you're sick, it's your fault, so go die in an alley you fatfatfatty.

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. really? care to cite that evidence? eating at Whole foods will reverse Alzheimer's and Multiple Sclerosis and Arthritis? really? fucking really, you fucking lying prick?!

You know what, Mr. Mackey? The next time you get sick, I bet you'll go to a doctor, the finest doctor money can buy, not eat an apple and hope for the best.