Whole Foods CEO John Mackey & Kathryn Slater Carter agree on Healthcare

Wednesday night at the Midcoast Community Council meeting Kathryn Slater Carter quoted extensively from Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s Wall Street Journal op-ed.

In a strong show of support for Mackey’s argument that American citizens do not have any intrinsic right to healthcare Slater Carter stated, "I’m buying all my groceries from Whole Foods now."

Thousands of Whole Foods customers have reacted to Mackey’s Wall Street Journal op-ed with a boycott effort, including an online petition with over 30,000 signatures. As part of the current damage control strategy, Whole Foods in-house public relations division has created a forum on its website for customers to discuss the healthcare issue.  There are over 19,000 healthcare posts, compared with 79 posts on the raw food forum.

Libba Letton, spokeswoman for Whole Foods recently said, "Certainly when our customers tell us they are unhappy to the extent that they are boycotting our stores, we are concerned.  We don’t want them to leave us."

During the Midcoast Community Council meeting Slater Carter made it clear that she agreed whole-heartedly with Mackey’s libertarian stance on healthcare reform. When I pointed out that universal healthcare is implemented in almost every industrialized country Slater Carter said, "All Americans have healthcare because they can go to an emergency room anytime."

It is my opinion that healthcare is not a commodity that only the rich deserve.