John Mackey, the CEO and founder of Whole Foods Market, Inc., has come up with eight ways to lower the costs of healthcare in America and none of them include a single-payer, universal coverage system.
Mackey agrees that we need healthcare reform, but his solution is less government as opposed to Obama’s drive to involve government even further in our healthcare.
His eight points are as follows:
- Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).
- 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.
Mackey goes into explanations of each of his prescriptions to healthcare reform in his excellent piece.
