Who Would’ve Thought I’d Have Anything in Common With Whole Foods CEO John Mackey?

I have a confession to make.  I get my groceries at Wally-World.  There’s one near my house, their prices are lower than another nearby grocery store, and I don’t mind the inevitable overcrowding on Sunday afternoon.  Some of you will count this against me since, for years, this establishment was known to have had a less than stellar track record in the way it treated its workers, and it may be single-handedly responsible for ending the age of mom-and-pop stores of all varieties (grocery, specialty, you name it).  To the first issue, I would say that Wal-Mart heard your concerns and has made efforts to improve relations with its employees.  And to the second, if it hadn’t been Wal-Mart, it would’ve been someone else putting mom-and-pop out of business.  It’s called capitalism.

My second confession is that I don’t eat anything organic (unless by accident).  Only God (and perhaps the FDA) knows what sorts of chemicals I’m ingesting when I eat the food purchased at my local Wally-World.  It hasn’t killed me, yet, so I’m not terribly worried.  So, who would’ve thought I’d come down on the side of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey in the debate over health reform.

In a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Mackey makes his proposals for health reform, and I agree with most of them.  What I admire about him is that he puts his money where his mouth is.  Whole Foods rolled out a Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA) several years back and has been serious about promoting it with employees and teaching them how to use it.  Employees are educating themselves about the plan and are, in fact, doing what CDHPs are designed to encourage them to do: shopping for health care services.

To be sure, I’m not certain CDHPs are going to save our health care industry.  But I do think they encourage people to think more carefully about their health care decisions.  I think that CDHPs should  be carefully designed to cover preventative things like regular checkups at low or no cost (i.e., not subject to the deductible).  Otherwise, some people will be inclined to avoid checkups in order to preserve their HSA balance.  That said, putting more responsibility on consumers seems like something else I remember that made this country great.  Oh yeah -- now I remember.  It’s called capitalism.

Mackey’s other proposals?

• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits.
• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.
• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.
• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost.
• Enact Medicare reform.
• 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.

Enacting any one of these changes would be challenging (an understatement?) given the interests that would be affected.  Nevertheless, to me, these are reasonable proposals for health reform that would encourage market-based solutions and deserve as much discussion as the options currently being debated.

Editor's Note - Greg Dagley is a Benefits Consultant for a large multinational employer in Houston, TX. While his company has employees all over the globe, his job keeps him focused on US benefits and spending a lot of his time managing external vendors.  Is there any doubt his Excel skills are more advanced than yours?

Comments

[Randi]

Consumer driven health plans are great for the educated, literate, and/or folks who have not begun to form any type of cognitive loss.

What else can be done for the folks who do not understand medical terms, claim forms, or the elderly who may not have the ability to wade through the information. I truly worry about young children, seniors, or the disabled who struggle with insurance, medical information or access to care.
Thanks

[moxiecat]

Mackey's comments make much more sense than anything I've seen proposed by the Feds. If they truly want reform they should consider his suggestions. If they are just furthering a socialist agenda (I think they are) they will completely ignore him. Ultimately health care is a service not a right and government should never ever be involved in any service be it GM or health care. The result is always very bad.
As to Randi's concerns-government intervention into the health care system would make the paperwork MUCH worse. Whether under a free market system or the socialist one being proposed, I suspect ethical friends, company reps, social agents, etc. would help those who need it.