There is a wonderful tempest in an (organic) teapot currently swirling around Whole Foods, the leading purveyor of organic products and assorted liberal bloggers. It demonstrates clearly the yawning gap between knee-jerk, ideological thinking and the way the world is actually made a better place.
The CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal describing his company's high-deductible health insurance plan. He also suggested various ways in which less government and more individual choice could result in a fairer, less costly system for everyone. The Wall Street Journal's headline writer entitled the piece, "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare."
Mackey pointed to his own Company's plan, developed painfully over the past six years, as a example of what could be done under existing federal and state law to maximize choice and employee satisfaction. (See his 2004 talk to the State Policy Network for illuminating details, including about how employees votes help to define the benefit package.)
For the cardinal sin of doubting that the federal government is the solution to health care's problems, the liberal blogosphere has descended upon Mackey with an outpouring of nastiness and a call to boycott the leading purveyor of granola to the literati of the left. At last count, his company's website forum on the issue had over 14,000 posts.
By all accounts, Whole Foods treats its generally younger workers very well, as its low employee turnover rate would suggest. Its high deductible plan is something that many organizations have been moving towards in recent years, with generally positive results for both employees and employers. It would be nice to think that such facts should help shape the debate about how to reform health care.
Read Mackey's op-ed - and go buy a few granola bars from the nearest Whole Foods.
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