The following is a repost of an article by the CEO of Whole Foods.   I agree with him.

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.

By 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 $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 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 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 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.

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.

Last September, I posted a blog regarding how Lubbock and our business was faring in these tough national economic times.   I was reminded about this post on Sunday when I read an article in the Lubbock Avalance-Journal regarding a spike in unemployment locally  [ http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/071809/loc_465348252.shtml  ].   Take a close look at what the actual numbers say, however, and I will add a couple of things that it didn’t.   First, unemployment numbers in Lubbock ALWAYS rise about 1% in the summer months.    Educational employment drops off and comes back in September.  So a portion of the rise was and always is expected.   Second, the total employment numbers are actually higher than this time last year.   So, the Lubbock job market has actually grown just not as fast as the workforce has grown.  There are more people available for work but employers are mostly holding steady.  Fortunately, very few layoffs have occurred in Lubbock and very few are expected.  This is not the case nationally.  So again, Lubbock keeps moving steady despite the drastic dips that go on elsewhere.

It is always interesting to me the little things that get lost in the rent vs own rationals that happen everyday somewhere.   Consider the following if you are currently renting:

This month a homeowner in your area will pay $1183.00 mortgage payment of which $167.17 of that sum will go towards their equity and $1017.31 will pay interest and escrow.

They cut their own grass, pay property taxes and homeowners association dues. The mortgage company won’t fix the faucet, exterminate, repair closet doors, or repair a leak in the roof.

This weekend while you enjoy your free time, your home-owning neighbor will spend their precious extra time and money at a home improvement store.

If you rent from McDougal, however, you can can call our office to assist you with any service need.

Just food for thought.

I know everyone has been watching the national news and all the unsettling events of the past week (government takeovers of mortgage giants FNMA and Freddie Mac, as well as the HUGE bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers). I was in Washington, DC on Monday and Tuesday of this week with the National Multi-Housing Council. We listened to executives from FNMA & Freddie and several of the CEO’s of the largest apartment operators in the country. Without exception, all of these executives are concerned about a prolonged economic slowdown. But, for now, the apartment industry is doing well. When you think about it, a slower economy means fewer people being able to buy homes and therefore, more people renting (increased demand). In addition, a temporary slowdown means less construction of new rental units (slow or no increase in supply). Both these factors are good for our industry…at least in the short term.

This is consistent with what we have been seeing in the markets our company operates in, particularly Lubbock. Our rental markets are for the most part STRONGER than they were a year ago. The fundamentals of our industry are strong. These messages were echoed by my collegues doing business across the country.

So to our employees and associates across the State of Texas, don’t worry about what you hear in the national news. Stay focused on your individual property and your residents. Keep your customers happy and our business will be just fine through the tough economic times our country no doubt faces in the coming months.

The Lubbock A-J had an article in today’s newspaper indicating once again that the Lubbock economy is doing better than the state and national economies. It is good reading. See the link below.

Lubbock’s economy holds firm
By Enrique Rangel | A-J AUSTIN BUREAU
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Story last updated at 9/24/2008 - 1:37 am

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/092408/loc_336129404.shtml

The National Multi Housing Council (”NMHC”) released its “NMHC Market Trends” report earlier today.    The report states in part “In the second quarter of 2008, apartment vacancy rates increased. The U.S. Census Bureau vacancy rate for all rental apartments (in buildings with 5 or more units) increased to 11.1 percent, up 0.4 percent from the previous quarter and one percent point from a year earlier. This is the highest vacancy rate since the first quarter of 2005.” 

While the national trend is declining occupancy, Lubbock’s occupancy is improving.  In its semi-annual survey dated June 2008, the Lubbock Apartment Association reports an occupancy increase of 4.09% from June 2007 to June 2008.   This is the highest summertime occupancy since 2002.

I believe there are two significant reasons for this.  First, the Lubbock market is continuing to absorb new construction that has come online since 2003 while the rate of new construction has slowed.  Second, the national mortgage crisis has resulted in tightened credit standards for new homebuyers.  This has the effect of keeping people in rental housing that might have otherwise bought homes within the last year.

It goes without saying that the continued growth and success of Texas Tech plays a large part in the overall Lubbock apartment occupancy as well.  But when combined with these other factors, Lubbock continues to buck the national trend which is one of the many reasons The McDougal Companies love calling Lubbock home.

Photo by Buffalo Framing & Truss

Construction of the Centre’s sister property, The Suites at Overton Park, is seen in this aerial photo provided by one of our business partners.    Leasing began this month for occupancy in early 2009.    This property will primarly house Texas Tech students in 298 apartments with just over 450 bedrooms.   The continued growth of Texas Tech is important for the Lubbock economy and McDougal Companies takes pride in assisting Tech students with their housing needs.

McDougal Companies is working to keep property taxes low for homeowners and rental properties affordable.    Following is an excerpt from testimony by Mike McDougal on Tuesday, August 12, before the Texas House Select Committee on Property Tax Relief and Appraisal Reform.   We would like to hear your comments and ideas.

Property taxes and appraisal reform are priority legislative issues for our company and our many business partners across the state.   We appreciate the efforts the Texas Legislature has made in recent years to lower property tax rates, but rate reductions without appraisal reforms HAVE NOT produced lower property tax bills.    The appraisal process is broken and as a result untold amounts of time and financial resources are being expended that bring no net economic benefit to the state, our company, nor our customers. 

One of the significant problems caused by the wide variations in appraisals for a specific property from one year to the next is that our business, particularly the apartment properties, are subject to long-term leases with no provisions for pass through of tax increases.  In fact, sometimes the market will bear ZERO rent increase regardless of cost differentials.    When property taxes increase 45% due to a reassessment from the district, there is no way these properties can increase rents in a similar amount.        Residential rent is market driven and unlike commercial triple-net leases in which any changes in property taxes are automatically passed on to the tenants, residential leases don’t have such a provision and are absorbed by the owner unless the market allows for a rental increase….but then only at the expiration of the lease.

During the last legislative session, our company and industry supported a proposal that would have created a 5-year rolling average for appraisals.   This concept would, at least, provide some predictability for both taxing entities and property owners.    A 5-year rolling average would effectively cover up a lot of “sins” within the broken appraisal system.    If, or I should say when, a property is mis-valued (either high or low),  the property owner would have 5 years to plan for the change in taxes before the full impact hits his bottom line.    This same predictability would also benefit taxing authorities as it would smooth out the ups and downs of tax collections just because properties increased or decreased in value during one particular year.

Bottom line, we believe the implementation of a simple 5-year average on appraisal value used to assess taxes would provide predictability and create a more stable economic environment for real estate across the State of Texas.

The McDougal Companies continue to see progress in the Overton Park addition of Lubbock.   The pictures below show the construction progress on The Hotel at Overton Park, a 15-story luxury hotel & conference center scheduled to open mid-2009.     Also shown under construction is The Suites at Overton Park, a 4-story, 298 unit apartment complex offering same level structured parking for each resident.   This project will be completed Spring 2009.

(click on a photo to view a larger image)

Photos by Warren Warner
Lubbock Economic Development Alliance
June 2008

Welcome to McBlog. We invite comments from our residents, real estate clients, construction customers and all others with something to share about our company. We strive to respond to all comments and posts within 24 hours. Comments and posts in poor taste will either be edited or deleted at our discretion. But we do encourage constructive criticism and positive comments as each blogger deems appropriate.

We look forward to engaging you in a conversation.
Mike McDougal, President, McDougal Properties.

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We are a family business in more ways than one. Ours is a company owned and operated by the McDougal family. It is a family of companies devoted to providing quality housing and it is a group of employees who see themselves as a family.

Our mission We strive to be the best in the housing industry by aspiring to the highest standard of service in a unique and friendly atmosphere.

Our values We are a family operated group of businesses that incorporates concerns for community, family, customer satisfaction, integrity and quality.

Our purpose We provide our customers with the highest quality of service in construction, housing and real estate.

Click on this link to view a 30-second video clip describing our company.
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