Quillen: Wal-Mart health care

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I really enjoy this columnists humor.... worth the read:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12902741

In any conflict, it's good to know what the enemy is thinking, so I found the Republican talking points on health-care reform.

Here's one: "We cannot allow politicians and special interests to stand between patients and the care they need. The American people deserve the freedom to choose the health care that is best for their families." But politicians already "stand between patients and the care they need," as with the war on drugs, which removes medical decisions (such as the treatment of chronic pain) out of doctors' and patients' hands.

(biiiig snip)

So why not a Wal-Mart health care plan, based on a clinic in every store? The service would be rather spartan — i.e., waiting in line rather than making appointments — but if you're in a Wal-Mart, you're used to being in line anyway. To lower costs, physicians could be imported from India and China. Therapies would range from herbs and acupuncture to traditional American pharmaceuticals. Unlike the federal government, though, Wal-Mart would use its buying power to drive drug prices down, down, down. Wal-Mart also has the clout to negotiate great deals with hospital chains — or to open its own hospitals if they balked.

So, if we can't do it the French way, Wal-Mart could do it the American way, with a coverage plan offered to the public that featured no-frills service, ruthless competition and relentless cost-cutting. You know, "Save money, live better."

Ed Quillen ([e-mail]) of Salida is a freelance writer and history buff, and a frequent contributor to The Post.

[imdjh]

1. I actually predicted Walmart medical care some time ago. It's not absurd.

When you consider how health insurance came into being, at Kaiser Steel, and how the Kaiser HMO and HMO hospital and clinic system developed, it's not absurd that the nation's largest private employer might look into opening clinics in its stores, especially when it is under pressure to insure its employees.

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2. Local grocery chain opened walk-in clinics.

No, not out of the realm of possibility.

However, it was the humor I enjoyed and wanted to share.

[Hannah Bell]

4. it's doing just that.

[Morning Dew]

3. All they'd pay for is Viagra and "Hey, watch this" accidents.

[leftstreet]

5. It's supposed to be funny, but it's probably what we'll get

the American way, with a coverage plan offered to the public that featured no-frills service, ruthless competition and relentless cost-cutting. You know, "Save money, live better."

It's funny but it's not.

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7. "It's funny but it's not." His usual writing style....wake up call.

First reaction: :rofl:

Second reaction: :scared: or :grr:

[lefthandedlefty]

6. Yeah but would their healthcare last only 2 or 3 weeks

like everything else they sell.

[madmom]

8. I used to work at Walmart about 1 1/2 years ago. While I was still there , there was

talk of clinics in the stores much like the eye care centers they now have. They have a company magazine that was usually in the break room of our store. I read an article about this in that publication.

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9. As I said in another reply, a local grocery chain is already doing it.

[burning rain]

10. Interesting.

No surprise if Wal-Mart care would further encourage quackery of all kinds.

[bobbolink]

11. And what would you be calling "quackery"?

Is this just one more baiting attack?

[burning rain]

12. With Wal-Mart, really, nothing would surprise me....

Laetrile, crystals, patent medicines, water imported from Lourdes, you name it.