Critics of Whole Foods CEO to demonstrate in Cambridge, Framingham

By Globe Staff

Health care reform supporters say they'll demonstrate Friday at Whole Foods stores in Cambridge and Framingham after the chain's chief executive wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal declaring that health care is not a right and calling for health care savings accounts.

A Whole Foods in Hingham

"Essentially, [CEO John] Mackey believes that health care in the United States can be fixed with a band aid, when what it really needs is a blood transfusion," said Russ Davis, executive director of Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, a coalition of unions, community groups, and religious organizations.

"All other modern industrialized countries have national health care systems which do it better, do it cheaper, and cover everybody. We need real reform here, too," Davis said in a statement.

Mackey's piece last week has left some of the store's shoppers feeling betrayed, The Associated Press reported today.

In the piece, Mackey wrote that while health care reform was needed, "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 moves us much closer to a complete governmental takeover of our health care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the exact opposite direction -- toward less governmental control and more individual empowerment."

In a blog item posted on the company website, Mackey emphasized he was giving his personal opinions and the company has no official position.