Thread: Whole Foods CEO John Mackey proposed healthcare plan

It's an interesting take

• 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 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.



• 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.



• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.



• 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.



• 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.



• 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?



• 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.



• 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.

[quote name='PoliticalHotwire' date='12 August 2009 - 04:29 PM' timestamp='1250108941' post='3964']
It's an interesting take


[/quote]


add a tax break to doctors who take uninsured patients and we have a good start.

and they seem to know what they're doing over at whole foods.

[quote name='Disappointed not surprised' date='12 August 2009 - 04:40 PM' timestamp='1250109645' post='3973']
Democrats will never pass tort reform... not only will they not pass it, they will hardly even discuss it.
[/quote]






all the while claiming no alternative plans but their own.

[quote name='PoliticalHotwire' date='12 August 2009 - 03:29 PM' timestamp='1250108941' post='3964']

It's an interesting take

[/quote]





These two are problematic:



• 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.



• 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.





You can't expect individual consumers to be able to tell how much and of what they will need coverage. The health care industry is too broad. It also doesn't really cover pre-existing conditions, the un-convered, nor does it really address the elderly.



What it translates too is more uncovered and at the mercy of private industry.



Seriously do you guys even stop to think before you regurgitate this garbage?

[quote name='Silkheat' date='12 August 2009 - 04:47 PM' timestamp='1250110055' post='3979']
These two are problematic:

• 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.

• 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.


You can't expect individual consumers to be able to tell how much and of what they will need coverage. The health care industry is too broad. It also doesn't really cover pre-existing conditions, the un-convered, nor does it really address the elderly.

What it translates too is more uncovered and at the mercy of private industry.

Seriously do you guys even stop to think before you regurgitate this garbage?
[/quote]


lets form a panel to determine if the pre existing condition is worthy of treatment or can be slowed for an acceptable period. If a focus was on that and provision for it more could be accomplished instead of revamping the whole system. How many people don't have insurance because of pre existing condition?

[quote name='Heel31ok' date='12 August 2009 - 03:53 PM' timestamp='1250110406' post='3983']




lets form a panel to determine if the pre existing condition is worthy of treatment or can be slowed for an acceptable period. If a focus was on that and provision for it more could be accomplished instead of revamping the whole system. How many people don't have insurance because of pre existing condition?

[/quote]





A lot, when I worked in the idustry the list for denial of coverage was pretty long. Again whether private or government pre-existing conditions must be covered, along with contracts may not be rescinded, and we need stricter regulations on what is covered. Letting the insurance agencies to their own devices and nothing will be covered here pretty soon. Also criminal charges like murder should be levied against companies who attempt to buck the system through legal instruments or contract avoidance.