My liberal butt just got whacked, my liberal brain ransacked. John Mackey, president of Whole Foods, is pushing against public options in health care reform. He thinks that private programs, which currently leave 46 million people uninsured, are the way to go. He thinks that high health care deductibles for people, regardless of their income, will go a long way to solving the health care crisis.
Sorry Mr. Mackey. How many employees working for Whole Foods can afford a $2,500 deductible?
Thirty years ago, as a young mother, I had to leave a job because the inadequate health insurance at my job failed to pay for necessary services for my three year old disabled daughter. A public option would have enabled me to continue employment uninterrupted.
Now, I am fortunate to be more comfortable financially. I would be willing to pay more in taxes to support a public option health care plan. What truly bothers me is paying more to a private plan that has high deductibles, low coverages and uses MY MONEY to pay a few people at the top.
I can speak with my food store choices, and until you and your company can gain empathy for the 46 million uninsured Americans and the many more underinsured Americans whose insurance premiums pad the pockets of wealthy health insurance execs my food dollars will go elsewhere.
maleeper, I support you and thousands of others support you too:
ReplyDeleteFrom the Guardian (UK):
“The outrage among some Whole Foods customers quickly escalated into calls for a consumer boycott. By yesterday – a week into the furore – almost 20,000 people had joined the Boycott Whole Foods Facebook page, and a dedicated blog (wholeboycott.com) had been set up to follow events and promote discussion.”
The dedicated website is called Boycott Whole Foods. Here are some recent updates:
Aug 15 - Investment group wants Mackey out
Aug 24 – Boycott events in your community
Aug 23 – Single payer action and union workers picketing Whole Foods in DC
Aug 20 – 23,000 supporters
Aug 19 – WholeBoycott on Flickr
Aug 18 – Where to shop: nationwide alternatives to Whole Foods
I would have to drive quite some distance to find one of those places, but since I really never felt isolated and abandoned because the local Publix only has 4 kinds of sugar rather than 924, I never bother to shop there.
ReplyDeleteI am fortunate in my isolation, that I can patronize small stores where the owner recognizes me and cares whether I'm pleased and some minimum wage person won't get all huffy if I can't name 324 varieties of Madagascar rice.
But hey - I'm a capitalist and if the invisible hand can give a visible finger to a guy who thinks screwing Americans is a kind of political philosophy rather than a crime, I'm for it.
This finger's for you Mr. Mackey, and I really mean it.
Well phooey on Whole Foods - the employer that touts itself as being oh so employer friendly - a new corporate mentality for a new world - supposedly.
ReplyDeleteApparently not.
May Mackey's feet be held to the proverbial fire until he comes to his senses.
My wife and I have enjoyed shopping at Whole Foods, but I think we can pass it up for a while. I'm not interested in feeding the leeches that are sucking us all dry.
ReplyDeleteHere is my dilemma; I like Whole Foods products and I have a son who works for them. Whole Foods is like the liberal, green, earth-mother store so how someone like Mackey ever became president of such a company is a mystery.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the company will simply oust him so I won't have to make a tough choice here.
Does it sound like I'm whining?...