Wall Street Journal readers might have noticed two different takes on Safeway CEO Steve Burd’s health-reform agenda this morning. Kim Strassel praised his success at keeping health costs flat for four years, through an incentive-based plan that rewards employees for quitting smoking and other healthy changes, and characterized him as an opponent of government-run health care. Over on the letters page, yours truly and others criticized Mr. Burd’s involvement with the political class, especially his proposal that the government should “cover all Americans” with a plan like Safeway’s.

How did Ms. Strassel and I come to such different conclusions about Mr. Burd’s vision? Mr. Burd himself had a column in the WSJ on June 12, in which he claimed that “if the nation had adopted our (Safeway’s) approach in 2005, the nation’s direct health-care bill would be $550 billion less than it is today.” Well, maybe it would — but not if the federal government passed a law imposing it on us. If Mr. Burd wants to spin off his benefits department into a company that advises others how to be as successful as Safeway has been (which is what Pitney-Bowes did), then I’ll be his loudest cheerleader. But as long as he seeks influence through lobbying, we should continue to be skeptical.

— John R. Graham is director of Health Care Studies at the Pacific Research Institute.