will Wall-Mart be your next doctor? rolling out 2000 health clinics in its stores

[e-brake]

http://consumerist.com/consumer/heal...or-258661.php\

Millions of Americans don't have health insurance, and many of them are Walmart shoppers. Heck, many of them are Walmart employees. The solution? Walmart is opening 400 more "health clinics" in the next 2-3 years. Eventually, there will be over 2,000 of these clinics. The intention of the clinic is to keep people out of the emergency room and inside the Walmart, according to the Daily Herald.

Ledlie [ senior director of Wal-Mart's health business development] said its in-store clinic operators found that more than half of the customers who used the clinics said they had no health insurance, and nearly 15 percent said they would have gone to an emergency room if the clinic was not there. "That was the hypothesis, but to see that proven out in the data really, to us, felt like this was the right time to go forward in a bigger way," Ledlie said.
Hastings said keeping customers out of emergency rooms makes sense for Wal-Mart, whose lower-income shoppers are being squeezed by high gasoline prices and a slowing housing market.
An unexpected emergency room trip could drain a shopper of dollars they would otherwise spend at Wal-Mart, he said.
Ledlie said the clinics fit the idea of "one-stop shopping" — a customer who has been treated for a sore throat can then fill a prescription at a Wal-Mart pharmacy and buy everything from chicken soup to cough drops before leaving.

[Nyteshade]

Depending on quality of care vs price, this may actually be a great move for Wal-Mart's PR and a win for lower class Americans. Wal-Mart can afford to absorb some of the cost and even spread it out by raising prices on their other products.

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by Nyteshade

Depending on quality of care vs price, this may actually be a great move for Wal-Mart's PR and a win for lower class Americans. Wal-Mart can afford to absorb some of the cost and even spread it out by raising prices on their other products.

If I was the CEO of Wal-Mart I would give the guy who came up with that idea a promotion straight to the top. Its brilliant for wal-mart and good for the poor and uninsured that will have access to cheap doctors.

It is however a very sad commentary on the state of the US medical system when it takes fucking WAL-MART to get basic medical care for Americans.

[PETA]

holy shit..... those goddamn evil bastards..... actually rolling out clinics that provid health care? WTF man! We need to do something about this immediately... lets arrest the fuckers for narco terrorism under the patriot act and send them to Afganistan so we can torture them w/out any pesky civil liberties groups bugging us about it!

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by St. Stalin the Apathetic

holy shit..... those goddamn evil bastards..... actually rolling out clinics that provid health care? WTF man! We need to do something about this immediately... lets arrest the fuckers for narco terrorism under the patriot act and send them to Afganistan so we can torture them w/out any pesky civil liberties groups bugging us about it!

lol your slipping today....Im actually siding with wal-mart on this one.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by e-brake

It is however a very sad commentary on the state of the US medical system when it takes fucking WAL-MART to get basic medical care for Americans.

Bullshit Kevin, its a very good example of the fact that private industry is the better method to acheive most ends.... not the goddamn government... that institution you spend most of your time condemning.... I cannot for the life of me figure out why you find our gov't so despicable in so many ways but want to turn over 20% of our economy to them when it comes to health care

[david austin]

i doubt this care will be anything of any type of quality.

but i guess subpar treatment is better than no treatment.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by david austin

i doubt this care will be anything of any type of quality.

but i guess subpar treatment is better than no treatment.

my guess is that it'll be walk in type stuff for tetnus shots, stitches, allergy scripts, school shots, etc ... you know basic medical shit that schools, employers etc require that aren't of major health concern. Severed limbs and the like - I bet that stuff stays with big hospitals. Reason? Not the least of which... John Edwards and the sue happy plaintiff's bar will price them out of providing care that will require more expensive insurance which means they'll keep it simple and safe and probably cheap too.

[johnny861]

So the first institution to roll out affordable basic healthcare to American citizens is going to be fucking LOLMart... nice.

[DREX]

i wonder if they will import there doctors from china

[PETA]

Originally Posted by e-brake

lol your slipping today....Im actually siding with wal-mart on this one.

pardon me - was a fair presumption that you were posting up something you were "outraged" about