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The title is misleading. Wal-Mart can't fix US healthcare. But Wal-Mart can make big inroads into fixing prescription drug access. But there are so many prob
by aneesh 18y ago
The title is misleading. Wal-Mart can't fix US healthcare. But Wal-Mart can make big inroads into fixing prescription drug access. But there are so many problems in healthcare that Wal-Mart isn't positioned at all to fix. Tens of millions of Americans need health insurance (though the 47 million number that is thrown around includes many who are young and don't want insurance, and many people in between jobs and temporarily uninsured). If Wal-Mart can't insure it's own employees, I don't think they'll become the health insurance provider for underserved Americans.
That said, here is another problem that Wal-Mart can "fix": It's too hard, and too expensive to see a doctor for a minor illness. CVS' MinuteClinic and related offerings by Wal-Mart are trying to exploit this niche.
But basically, there is too much wrong with healthcare for any one entity (incl the gov't) to "fix" it. As an administration official said (privately): "The great thing about health policy, is that your education & training is still useful. The issues we're facing now are the same ones we were facing 30 years ago!"
- alaskamiller 18y agoWhat you're really saying is: there's no money. Insurance is basically a means of pooling together money then someone has to assign to fix the people that need it. That's not what's wrong with healthcare. What's wrong with healthcare is that the lower middle to middle class don't have much money to be taxed with or to contribute to healthcare. At the end of the day what needs to be done is someone needs to figure out how to get money and spend it wisely. Both the government and businesses do a shitty job with this.
- aneesh 18y agoNot just that. Healthcare has so many players that all need to be pleased to make anything happen. It's complicated because the payer and customer are different, unlike most other industries.
- Prrometheus 18y agoI don't think the title is misleading. The author claims that Wal-Mart can lower health care costs and increase access to more people. Do you have any specific argument against that? > If Wal-Mart can't insure it's own employees, I don't think they'll become the health insurance provider for underserved Americans. Nobody said that they would, including the author. However, if Wal-Mart can work their magic on basic health care, then it becomes much easier to get by on a high-deductible catastrophe plan for most people.
- aneesh 18y agoWell, healthcare != drugs. Yes, better medications are a part of providing better health care, and Wal-Mart can help a lot with that. But there is much more to providing quality healthcare. I'm not criticising Wal-Mart - they're doing a great job lowering barriers to access. I'm just saying we should recognize the limitations and not call it a panacea for American healthcare.
- Prrometheus 18y agoThey also expanding into basic doctor's visits through their pilot clinic program. It's in the article.