These quotations from John Mackey reveal the strong beliefs that this famous U.S. retail industry founder and leader has about health and healthcare in the workplace, and in general. When healthcare reform was the subject of intense political debate in 2009 and 2010, Mackey's strong stance against government involvement in healthcare sparked a customer boycott and a call for his resignation. Mackey stayed true to his beliefs and kept his leadership role, however. Likely his opinions about health and health care stayed the same, but his desire to express them openly might not be as strong.
Quotable Quotes From John Mackey, Co-Founder of Whole Foods, About U.S. Health and Healthcare:
- "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."
- "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."
- "We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age."
- "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."
- "Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair. "
- "We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable."
- "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."
- "Whole Foods is dedicated to helping people be healthier and live lives with more vitality and
greater sense of well being."
- "I became a vegan and at the same time I realized, gosh, Whole Foods has got to create a higher standard here. I think it will ultimately be a good business decision because I think our customers expect us, want us to pave this path."
- "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."
