By Thursday, Mackey was walking back that statement and released a lengthy statement Friday morning.
Mackey, in an interview with Fox News, reiterated that he used a poor choice of words that resulted in a lot of blowback.
I made a poor word choice to describe our health care system, which I definitely regret. The term scism today stirs up too much negative emotion with its horrific associations in the 20th century, he said.
Mackey, who has long spoken out against the 2010 health care law, took heat earlier this week after saying in an NPR interview that the policy is not so much socialism as it is more like scism. He argued that in scism, the government doesnt own the means of production but they do control it, and compared that to the mechanics of the U.S. health care law.
I need a new word or phrase to describe the state of health care now because it is something that I, like all folks entrusted with the wellbeing of a team, grapple with daily in this era, he said. I think for now I will simply call it government-controlled health care to distinguish it from free enterprise capitalist health care.
Competition forces business to improve and get better, Mackey said in an earlier Fox News interview, saying bad regulations are hurting.
Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey is backing off his controversial comparison of ObamaCare to scism, but hes not easing off his criticism of the health care overhaul.
In the written statement, college education PAPERROAD Mackey said the ideal would be to combine free enterprise with a strong governmental safety net for the poor and those with preexisting conditions.
With the major provisions of the health care overhaul poised to go into effect in 2014, Mackey continued to argue that the new system -- which provides subsidies to buy insurance,How To Pick Best .internet Training Company For Summer time Breaks. education requires almost everyone to sign up and sets minimum standards for the industry -- will not be as effective as a system in which the government is less involved.
Mackey indicated he would no longer use an emotionally charged word like scism.
He said he was trying to describe government-controlled health care, or the opposite of free-enterprise capitalism.
This is what Switzerland doeshealth insurance laws Whole Foods chief backs off ObamaCare and I think we would be much better off copying that system than where we are currently headed in the United States, he said.