Will Whole Foods' Plan Work?

Ever since the post WW2 era when America linked health insurance to employment, the system has been slowly deteriorating. Now, with the demise and/or globalization of our largest corporations and changing employment patterns - from a single job to at least seven jobs in a life-time, it's crashing and burning. Sure, hats off to Whole Foods for trying, or whatever. But it's not going to work. It, too, will fail, either from management's end (see FedEx) or it will be crushed by costs.

The American worker needs a safe and reliable source of health insurance for herself and her family. Every American needs this and deserves this, because we are, at heart, a great and generous nation, and we can do this, as have most of the other civilized nations of the world.

The wealthy will always be able to afford their own programs - and they can opt out if they wish, just like folks can opt out of Social Security at the first signing.

Beneath all of this is a simple notion inherent in democracy - that we're all in this together. When my sister and brother are safe, I'm safe, too. It's a simple reality wired into our DNA. Or as the Bible suggests, we really are our brother's keeper, and when we fulfill these basic obligations, our heart is relieved, and we feel better, not only about ourselves, but our nation, too.

Kindness and generosity are always the healing energies of the soul.

Whole Foods Health Care?

For now, Whole Foods offers, a good health insurance plan for its workers, even as its CEO has come out against President Obama's plan.

Here's a note I posted to Smart Money and an article touting Whole Foods:

All fine and good, but for how long? FedEx in the beginning, was a similar model, but that all evaporated in the last five years.

The real flaw is our post-WW2 link of employment with healthcare - sort of like a roller coaster ride, too many ups and downs, and then it all ends one day, again.

A second flaw - the middleman insurance companies who are bound and driven by Wall Street to make a profit, and the bigger the better. Like the rest of the world, we need a single-payer health insurance system. Is this so hard to figure out?

The billions now being paid into the insurance pit would be dramatically cut when we begin paying into a single-payer system. We talk about efficiency all the time while supporting the most inefficient and expensive health-insurance industry in the world (inefficient for us, but highly profitable for them).

Until we correct these flaws, the system will continue to fail the American family, and more and more Americans will find themselves without health insurance or so poorly insured they might as well be without it.