The 'Safeway Solution' to the health care crisis: Pay (the inverse of) what you weigh!!

Let's have a look -- shall we? -- at this weaselly, Scrooge-like robber-baron of the "price-check":

This -- by the way -- is the face of "elite" America. Not the English-lit professors and starving artists.... Not by a long shot.

(Wow: I'm in quite a mood this morning!)

Anyway, this man is Steven Burd, the CEO of Safeway, Inc. And, I'm just joking with all of these ad hominems. For all I know, he's a very nice man who loves his wife and children, etc., etc. Looks like he could use a shave, though.

Steven Burd, a modern-day Captain Of Industry if ever there was one (and there was...that is...there is), has gone public with his innovative -- and I quote -- "market-based solution" to the problem of insuring all Americans while simultaneously lowering costs. His solution is already being used at a Safeway location near you! Here's how he pitched it in an Op-Ed that appeared in The Wall Street Journal -- a once-venerable institution that is now owned, of course, by Captain Of Industry Rupert Murdoch -- last June (emphases mine):

Effective health-care reform must meet two objectives: 1) It must secure coverage for all Americans, and 2) it must dramatically lower the cost of health care. Health-care spending has outpaced the rise in all other consumer spending by nearly a factor of three since 1980, increasing to 18% of GDP in 2009 from 9% of GDP. This disturbing trend will not change regardless of who pays these costs -- government or the private sector -- unless we can find a way to improve the health of our citizens. Failure to do so will make American companies less competitive in the global marketplace, increase taxes, and undermine our economy.

At Safeway we believe that well-designed health-care reform, utilizing market-based solutions, can ultimately reduce our nation's health-care bill by 40%. The key to achieving these savings is health-care plans that reward healthy behavior. As a self-insured employer, Safeway designed just such a plan in 2005 and has made continuous improvements each year. The results have been remarkable. During this four-year period, we have kept our per capita health-care costs flat (that includes both the employee and the employer portion), while most American companies' costs have increased 38% over the same four years.

OK. So: what we're talking about here is a plan that ignores the most pernicious problems of our existing health care non-system. For example, currently, many people have difficulty obtaining health insurance if they suffer from pre-existing conditions. The solution promoted by Safeway's CEO is simply to cease considering it to be a problem! After all, posits this insufferable produce-aisle huckster, it's not considered a problem in the context of auto insurance, so why should it be a problem in the context of health insurance?

Moreover, this 'plan' outright ignores the myriad factors contributing to the skyrocketing cost of health care in our blessed Home Of The Free, and places the blame squarely upon the squishy shoulders of Safeway's nationwide cadre of trailer-trash cashiers: How dare you trailer trash fatty-pantses be born into a family, set of socioeconomic circumstances, culture and genetic disposition that increases one hundred-fold the likeliness that you will be fatty-pants trailer trash??!!:

As with most employers, Safeway's employees pay a portion of their own health care through premiums, co-pays and deductibles. The big difference between Safeway and most employers is that we have pronounced differences in premiums that reflect each covered member's behaviors. Our plan utilizes a provision in the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that permits employers to differentiate premiums based on behaviors. Currently we are focused on tobacco usage, healthy weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Safeway's Healthy Measures program is completely voluntary and currently covers 74% of the insured nonunion work force. Employees are tested for the four measures cited above and receive premium discounts off a "base level" premium for each test they pass. Data is collected by outside parties and not shared with company management. If they pass all four tests, annual premiums are reduced $780 for individuals and $1,560 for families. Should they fail any or all tests, they can be tested again in 12 months. If they pass or have made appropriate progress on something like obesity, the company provides a refund equal to the premium differences established at the beginning of the plan year.

Oh, how benevolent of you, you golf-playing, corporate jet-having Übergrocer!

At Safeway, we are building a culture of health and fitness.

Huh. So, that's the goal, is it? I know of someone else who wanted to make this a priority for his entire nation.