Read  the Case Study: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare, located on page 20 of the textbook. Write  a paper of approximately 750 words that will include three separate writing projects: The first will be a brief letter (approximately 250 words) in which you pretend to be John Mackey responding to a major supplier of Whole Foods that has threatened to terminate business dealings because of the controversial op-ed piece. The second will be a statement (approximately 250 words) that you will read at the next Whole Foods board of directors meeting to explain your decision to write the op-ed piece and your subsequent handling of the resulting publicity. The third will be your analysis (approximately 250 words) of whether Mackey's Op-ed article and his response afterward showed that he properly applied the four steps in the strategic communication process: Identify the purpose Analyze the audience Consider the context Analyze the method Examine which steps (if any) he took and which (if any) he missed Article of page 20 of textbook Case Study:  The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare The Wall Street Journal OPINION  AUGUST 11, 2009, 7:30 P.M. ET “Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.” —John Mackey “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” —Margaret Thatcher With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people’s money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us. While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone: 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. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees’ Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness. Money not s ...

1. Read
the Case Study: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare,
located on page 20 of the textbook.
Write
a paper of approximately 750 words that will include three
separate writing projects:
The first will be a brief letter (approximately 250 words) in
which you pretend to be John Mackey responding to a major
supplier of Whole Foods that has threatened to terminate
business dealings because of the controversial op-ed piece.
The second will be a statement (approximately 250 words) that
you will read at the next Whole Foods board of directors
meeting to explain your decision to write the op-ed piece and
your subsequent handling of the resulting publicity.
The third will be your analysis (approximately 250 words) of
whether Mackey's Op-ed article and his response afterward
showed that he properly applied the four steps in the strategic
communication process:
Identify the purpose
Analyze the audience
Consider the context
Analyze the method
Examine which steps (if any) he took and which (if any) he
missed
Article of page 20 of textbook
Case Study:
The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
The Wall Street Journal
OPINION
AUGUST 11, 2009, 7:30 P.M. ET
“Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding
to the deficit.”

2. —John Mackey
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of
other people’s money.”
—Margaret Thatcher
With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions
more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both
Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to
ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby
Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of
other people’s money. These deficits are simply not sustainable.
They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and
inflation, or they will bankrupt us.
While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our
country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will
create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits
and move us much closer to a government takeover of our
health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve
reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less
government control and more individual empowerment. Here are
eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care
for everyone:
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. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of
the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or
more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-
deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800
per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into
employees’ Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose
on their own health and wellness.
Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows
over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-
care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about

3. $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives
to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan’s costs are
much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a
very high degree of worker satisfaction.
Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health
insurance and individually owned health insurance have the
same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are
fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This
is unfair.
Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from
competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right
to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in
any state and we should be able to use that insurance wherever
we live. Health insurance should be portable.
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. How many people know the total
cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down?
What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how
much they will cost us?
Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact
that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms

4. 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.
Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have
an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to
doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with
those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of
an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or
shelter?
Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and
shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually
beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not
reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s
because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in
America
Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic
right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told
by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are
eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All
countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing
their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.
Although Canada has a population smaller than California,
830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a
hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in
Investor’s Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8
million.
At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what
benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and
British employees express their benefit preferences very
clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they

5. can control and spend themselves without permission from their
governments. Why would they want such additional health-care
benefit dollars if they already have an “intrinsic right to health
care”? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either
Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country.
Rather than increase government spending and control, we need
to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the
realization that every American adult is responsible for his or
her own health.
Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-
inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-
third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for
about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer,
stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through
proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol
consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.
Whole Food’s Facebook Response
Whole Foods August Stock Price
Source:
Yahoo! Finance
Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet
consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-
fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative
diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be
able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our
90s and even past 100 years of age.
Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are
enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and
that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care
services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices.
We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We
should take that responsibility very seriously and use our
freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our
health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a
vibrant and sustainable American society.
Mr. Mackey is co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc.

6. Endnotes
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Smith, E. (2005). John Mackey.
Texas Monthly
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, January 8.
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10. Alsop, R. (2007). How boss’s deeds buff a firm’s reputation.
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Peace, love and profit—meet the world’s richest organic
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Peace, love and profit.
26.

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Rethinking the social responsibility of business.
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Peace, love and profit.
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FLOW: About us.
FLOW
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McLaughlin & Martin. As sales slip, Whole Foods tries health
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32.
Kesmodel, D., & Wilke, J. R. (2007). Whole Foods is hot, Wild
Oats a dud—so said “Rahodeb.”
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.
33.
FTC seeks to block Whole Foods Market’s acquisition of Wild
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12. 5, 2007,
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34.
Mackey, J. (2008). The CEO’s blog, back to blogging. Whole
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Organic Foods – US – October 2008. Mintel Reports. Accessed
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37.
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Bloomberg Businessweek
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39.
Ibid.
40.
Health insurance consumer protections. The White House Web
site,