I've lived a lot of my life without health care, but I've been incredibly fortunate not to have had much illness in my life. I can't take credit for it; I ate just as poorly and exercised just as little as the next overweight American. I was just lucky. I was never hit by cancer, or MS, or any of a thousand life-changing illnesses, and never had any significant auto accidents. Pure, unadulterated luck.

Most people without health insurance don't have it so lucky.  Many people have never been able to have health insurance beyond what their parents had, because they learned in child-hood of illnesses that counted as uncoverable pre-existing conditions. Some have learned of conditions while they had a job with coverage, and sometimes these conditions lead to not having a job anymore...and no more coverage. And then no coverage ever again because of pre-existing conditions. It's a sucky, horrible dilemma that most people, once they get there, are never able to get out of.

A public health insurance option would mean, for these people, that they can have medical care.Medical care that would meant hat they can fight for their lives, fight to be able to be a productive part of the work force with some hope of winning the fight. That they don't have to choose food or rent or any of a thousand other necessities for themselves and their families, over medicine.

John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, thinks that's a bad idea. He thinks that the answer to America's uninsured is to make them dependent on charity for all medical care, and for them somehow to contrive to be able to eat more organic fruits and vegetables. He thinks that less regulation over the insurance industry and higher deductibles will be useful.

I don't claim to know a lot about the insurance tangle, but I do know this: less regulation ALWAYS means higher prices and lower quality to these corporate thieves. I do know that someone who can't afford insurance now certainly won't be able to with deregulation, and I know that higher deductibles won't help. 

Deregulation will mean fewer people will be insurable, not more, and that people with pre-existing conditions will be charged through the nose for any coverage at all. It will mean that people who do pay for coverage will get ripped off by the insurance companies at every possible opportunity. They do it now, WITH regulation. Imagine what horrible things they'll do without oversight!

I do know that a healthier, less desperate population means less crime and more productivity. It means a better economy. It means less sqalor and disease. It is in every American's best interest that Americans as a whole be healthier.

Whole Foods claims to be a company that cares about its communities and environment. I can't help thinking now, in light of Mackey's revelations, that they mean only the wealthy parts of their communities. Not surprising, really, that they only have stores in affluent areas, but a bit of a shock to realize that they don't have a real grasp of what a community is, or of how to keep a healthy one.

I have joined the boycott of Whole Foods. It won't be easy for me - I've grown to depend on them for tasty and reasonably priced gluten-free items - but that doesn't matter. What does matter is my money no longer going to anyone who thinks that anyone who isn't wealthy should just roll over & die.