Single Payer Protest at Manhattan Whole Foods Store Draws Police

August 30, 2009

Dozens of advocates for national health care staged a “flash mob” action at the opening of a new Whole Foods store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan last Thursday.

The group was protesting the assertion by Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, that health care is not a right in America.

The action continued a national wave of protests against the health food giant.

During the evening rush hour, activists wearing signs suddenly appeared in various aisles of the new store.

Some of the signs read: “Health Care, Not Wealth Care,” “CEO Mackey says health care is not a right. I disagree,” and “Universal Health Care Now!”

Every time an activist was asked to leave the store and escorted out, another one appeared with a sign in a different aisle.

Organized by the Private Health Insurance Must Go! Coalition (PHIMG), a New York-based single-payer advocacy group, the action underlies the anger that has been stirred up by an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal written by Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey.

In the op-ed titled “Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare,” Mackey claims that health care is not “an intrinsic ethical right.”

“John Mackey is the Marie Antoinette of our age,” said Laurie Wen, a member of the group. “He’s basically saying, ‘No health care. Let them eat organic vegetables.’ It’s scandalous that a rich man with great health care is blaming those who don’t have it. We can’t continue this inequitable system — we need what every other industrialized country in the world has — a national system that guarantees health care to everyone.”

Another member of the group, Jean Fox, said Mackey’s fortune “is built on the money of deceived progressives, who mistook him for someone with similar values.”

“Health care is a right and the only system that guarantees universal coverage and cost savings is a single-payer, ‘Medicare for All’ system,” Fox said.

Many passersby stopped to talk to the protesters.

Some had read the op-ed and were already angry, others were dismayed to find out what Mackey had said.

Whole Foods’ management called the police.

At least six police cars arrived at the scene, with more than a dozen police officers.