21 Aug 2009 John Mackey: Eight Ways to Improve Health Care
John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, has eight suggestions for improving health care in today’s Wall Street Journal.
They are, quoting Mackey:
- 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…
- 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. 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…
- 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.
Mackey’s op-ed is excellent. I strongly encourage folks to read the whole thing.
Here’s something else great by John Mackey, circa 2006.
This post was written by National Center for Public Policy Research Vice President David Ridenour. E-mail comments to [email protected]. | Subscribe to this blog’s feed. | Followon Twitter.
Labels: Government Spending, Health Care, Retirement, Taxes