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Howard Schultz on Health Care

Howard Schultz on Health Care Starbucks CEO; independent candidate for President until July 2019





Medicare-for-All: $32T cost is out of touch with reality

Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowardSchultz.com , Apr 10, 2019

ObamaCare is ok, but Medicare-for-All goes too far

A: We have a health care crisis in the country on many levels. The Republicans have done everything possible to eradicate the Affordable Care Act without offering any plan -- this is the far right. The far left is now suggesting Medicare for all. That is a $32 trillion number. Does anyone understand that Medicare-for-all also means that you will lose the choice of your doctor and your private insurance company?

Q: Your alternative?

One, I think everyone in America, every person deserves to have the right for affordable care. Second, there needs to be competition in the system so that the American people can get access to prescription drugs at lower prices, because right now the government is not allowed under a federal law to negotiate with pharma. Third thing has been tested but not proven yet about interstate commerce among insurance companies.

Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls , Feb 12, 2019

President must take responsibility for V.A.

Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls , Feb 12, 2019

False choice between socialized medicine & ObamaCare repeal

What's the truth? The truth is that healthcare costs are the biggest driver of unaffordable care. Yet neither side, extreme left, extreme right has offered and developed any kind of credible plan to reduce costs by increasing competition. Or requiring more transparency on prices from hospitals and drug companies. Or investing in preventive care. This is a problem that can be solved. We must bring down healthcare costs while increasing choice and access.

Source: Purdue Univ. speech on 2020 Presidential Campaign website , Feb 7, 2019

Keep employee health benefits during Great Recession

"We feel very strongly that this is the time to cut the healthcare benefit." For years, Starbucks had been spending more money on healthcare coverage for our partners than we spent on coffee. Between 2000 and 2009, healthcare costs were up almost 50% per partner. "Everyone will understand you had no choice," he told me.

Of course, we had a choice, Yes, eliminating or reducing healthcare for our partners could immediately boost profits. Wall Street would cheer. But it would be utterly unfair to thousands of people and their families, and verge on inhumane. It would also sap spirits and breach trust. I knew we'd never recover.

Wall Street's failure to recognize future benefits of current expenditures is part of the short-term mentality that's become a systematic problem of modern-day capitalism.

Apply affordable healthcare to part-time employees

Source: From the Ground Up, by Howard Schultz, p.166 , Jan 28, 2019

Single-payer health care is a false promise

Source: Washington Post on 2020 presidential hopefuls , Jan 18, 2019

Expand coverage to include part-time employees

At the same time, health-care bills were soaring to unmanageable heights. Few companies covered part-time workers at all, and those who did restricted benefits to those working at least 30 hours a week. Most executives were actively looking for ways to contain their medical insurance expenses.

Starbucks went the other direction: Instead of cutting health-care benefits, we found a way to increase ours. I saw my plan not as a generous optional benefit but as a core strategy. Treat people like family, and they will be loyal and give their all.

We began offering full health benefits to all part-timers in late 1988. To my knowledge, we became the only private company--and later the only public company--to do so.

Offer employee coverage for terminal illnesses

Then one day, Jim came into my office and told me he had AIDS. It took incredible courage. I had known he was gay but had no idea he was sick. His disease had entered a new phase, he explained, and he wouldn't be able to work any longer.

Starbucks had no provision for employees with AIDS. We had to make a policy decision. Because of Jim, we decided to offer health-care coverage to all employees who have terminal illness, paying medical costs in full from the time they are not able to work until they are covered by government programs, usually 29 months.

After his visit to me, I spoke with Jim often and visited him at the hospice. Within a year, he was gone. I received a letter from his family afterward, telling me how much they appreciated our benefit plan.

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Page last updated: Jan 28, 2020