I fully support Whole Foods in this endeavour–and backed it with my $$$ this weekend.

Good job guys!

I would be more willing to accept that the US government could run a healthcare system that included a public option if it hadn’t proven time and time again its complete failure to manage other social entitlement programs. Social Security is going broke. Medicare is going broke. In fact, we are going so far in to debt that in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, congress had to increase the public debt limit to $12,104,000,000,000 (that’s trillion) (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ005.pdf section 1604). The national deficit (the amount that we spend over the amount we have annually) is ever increasing, with projections putting it at about 12% of our GDP in the year 2010 (http://cbo.gov/). It is my opinion that with a single-party system we have unleashed on our country, we have effectively let loose a stampede of fat kids in a candy store.

Our healthcare needs reform, but it isn’t in nearly as much of a crisis as has been stated. That 46M figure of uninsured includes illegal and legal aliens (non Americans), people who make over $75,000/yr and can afford it on their own, as well as many young people who have decided it is an acceptable risk not to have it, and won’t need it until they are older. That leaves about 8 million people “chronically uninsured” (http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices/12706429-1.html)(note, they are referencing a study done by CNN). So we’re going to spend $1.3T over the next 10 years to insure 8 million people…that’s $16,250 per person, per year. I just saw a commercial from assurance health saying they have plans starting as low as $100/month ($1,200 a year). This public option doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. Once we run our economy completely into the ground, the public sector won’t be able to pay for a fly swatter necessitated by all the rotting pork in Washington.

My solution:

Dissuade people from adopting this feeling of entitlement. People need to learn how to take care of themselves. Allow for HSA’s and promote more catastrophic care plans (which would be a tax penalty under the currently proposed bill).
We must have tort reform. The cost of malpractice insurance is a huge factor in healthcare costs. Eliminate that looming cost, and healthcare becomes more affordable. Illegal aliens should still be treated at ERs in this country. Then they should be deported and have a bill sent to their government. If the government doesn’t pay, we impose sanctions thus making other governments enforce our immigration law

–quick sidebar: I hear people in countries such as Canada say it is unfair that in America we can just “Jump the line” for healthcare. I think it’s odd that the same people who say that in our country are the ones advocating that illegal immigrants jump to the front of the line in our system. It is simply unfair that they can do that to people who have waited patiently and followed all the rules to enter our country. end of sidebar –

I think that about covers it. If I missed something, let me know!

Did I say that I was trying to take down capitalism? We have lots of services in our society that aren’t provided by purely for-profit entities because it just wouldn’t work. How we have decided that socialized fire departments are okay but health care is not just confuses me. We pay more for health care in this country than any other industrialized nation but we get less for that money. By all of the metrics used to gauge such matters, we aren’t living better or longer for that investment. Infant mortality and maternal mortality are horrible (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/health/16infant.html and http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/80743.php).

A free market solution doesn’t work for healthcare (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/), but that doesn’t preclude a regulated market solution. The Netherlands does that well (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/07/05/healthy_examples_plenty_of_countries_get_healthcare_right/?page=1). Progressives are understandably wary of anything involving regulation since Congress (and in my opinion, Republican administrations) has historically gutted regulatory power or created a revolving door between government and industry so that the regulations become ineffective.

Do you genuinely not see health care in this country as a crisis? If so, what is your solution?

Our society does currently provide healthcare to our citizens. Federal law prohibits an ER from turning anyone away, regardless of their insurance coverage or ability to pay.
You say you vote with your dollars, so you understand the importance of money in our society. Money enables and, on a lesser scale, incentivizes medical research and innovation. Profits in the insurance and pharmaceudical industries in America are used for research, reward, and are eventually filtered back into the economy through spending. It’s a big synergistic cycle of goodness. Capitalism sucks, until you compare it to every other system ever tried.

I do believe that a decent society has an obligation to provide healthcare to everyone. So maybe healthcare isn’t a “right” necessarily, but it should be provided if we want society to be better off.

I was torn over the Whole Foods debacle. I do believe in boycotting when I disagree with an owner’s politics, because corporations donate money and can swing votes on big issues and I want to vote with my dollars.

BUT, Whole Foods is my go to source for organic, sustainable meat on my once a week meat splurge, so I’ll stick with it for that but probably reduce my incidental shopping there, for the time being.

We have a few smaller organic markets in DC, but none are near me and they tend to have a smaller selection than the nearby Whole Foods.

I do belong to a CSA so that is where I get a lot of my produce during the summer, and I have been supplementing at the farmers market.

What I find so fascinating (and utterly demoralizing) about this whole dust-up is that Obama isn’t even proposing something that progressives want. The Democrats are showing themselves to be just as in the pockets of the health insurance industry (and the pharmaceutical industry), so I doubt we will get any real reform. I would love to be proven wrong though. I gave money to the Blue America PAC through Act Blue’s campaign to raise money for any Senators and Representatives who would stand up for the public option.

http://www.actblue.com/page/theytookthepledge

I don’t understand these people who go on and on about people needing to “take care of themselves”. People can be bankrupted by even minor health problems, and many health care providers won’t even talk to you unless you have insurance or some way to guarantee payment. And how do people “abuse” public health care? They just get sick for the fun of getting the free health-care? Should we dismantle the fire department to keep from encouraging arsonists?

I was reading somewhere (and I wish that I could remember the source to link it) that progressives just need to demand what we think is right and fight for it. If we waited on other important matters like integration or getting the vote for women until people all agreed it was the right thing to do, then we would still have separate drinking fountains.

Too bad the closest Whole Foods is over 50 miles away from me, otherwise they would have gained another customer due to Mr Mackey’s courage to dissent from The 0ne and his minions.