How the UAW changes the HealthCare landscape in America

[g48150]

Real easy, one word - Wal-Mart

 

Three sentence backstory: I got my mail on Friday and in it was a coupon book for CVS Pharmacy. The last page of the coupon book had something called a "Minute Clinic" and surprise, there is one right near my house. A Minute Clinic, according to the booklet was kind of like an urgent care where they took care of pretty much any medical ailment, save a broken bone or something life threatening.

 

Back on track, with the UAW being "handed" money to take "care" of the medical side of things for retirees, they could EASILY put something like these "Minute Clinics" in EVERY Wal Mart in America.

 

Every Wal Mart I've been in already has a Pharmacy and an Optometrist (granted, I've only been in 6 Wal-Marts in 4 states, so there could be areas of the country where this isn't the case, but I digress), adding a dentist and a "clinic" would only strength the pricing power that Wal-Mart is already famous for wielding.

 

With every Wal-Mart in America with UAW-funded clinics, dentist, and vision coverage, Wal-Mart becomes its own self-reciprocating health care system. If you follow where I'm going with this already, you can stop reading, you know what Wal-Mart is famous for anyway. Conversely with UAW-funded health systems in every Wal-Mart, the blue vests are just THAT much closer to becoming organized.

 

In a perfect world, this would lead to a "UAWal-Mart", where you could get your goods from China at the same price as your health care. With strong "consumer-style" controls on health care costs, everything health related becomes affordable, and with Wal-Mart style courtesy built in, medical providers HAVE to provide Customer Service, or be eaten alive.

 

When's the last doctor's visit when the "nurses" treated YOU with any kind of respect? or when the doctor spent more than 115 seconds with YOU?

 

In UAWal-Mart we trust! :shades:

 

[g48150]

 

Well look at it his way, the #1 "growth business" over the next 10 years is going to be the health industry, imagine a "union" doctor down at your local Wal-Mart treating anything and everything that comes through the doors, in 15 minutes or less, with a smile, no less!

 

Manufacturing is dead in this country, with the number of "fogies" continuing to rise, they will need more places to get some sort of "quality" care, and Wal-Mart will keep the "always low prices, always" thing going, and going, and going...

[BTV to SHV Transferee]

I believe what the main posting was about, but used Wal-Mart as the example, is that Walgreen's and CVS want and need to expand their services beyond just filling prescriptions and buying the ultra-large bags of weird named candies and "As Seen on TV" stuff. Wal-Mart and the likes have taken alot of their prescription business, so they are expanding into non-life threatening triage type of care. Small cuts, small burns, lacerations, you know, urgent care type stuff. The same stuff most emergency rooms are full of every night.

 

Walgreen's and CVS want a piece of the insurance industry money that is usually only paid to doctors and hospitals.

 

Walgreen's & CVS can hire only one real doctor for about 10 stores and have a RN and Physicians Assistant on duty at each store to do the grunt work. And the wait time is about half. Now onto the expense, Walgreen's and CVS see the way the Goodyear retiree health plan is going to work. So now they can by-pass any insurance loopholes and negotiate with the United Steel Workers for the business.

 

So, there will be more choices for the Goodyear retirees to have un-life threatening health problems taken care of. CVS and Walgreen's ultimately want your prescriptions filled at their store, thats where the money is, but at the same time, the USW will start to negotiate on their own for prescription drugs, as they should. I see the UAW doing the same for their retirees also.

[methos]

Real easy, one word - Wal-Mart

 

Three sentence backstory: I got my mail on Friday and in it was a coupon book for CVS Pharmacy. The last page of the coupon book had something called a "Minute Clinic" and surprise, there is one right near my house. A Minute Clinic, according to the booklet was kind of like an urgent care where they took care of pretty much any medical ailment, save a broken bone or something life threatening.

 

Back on track, with the UAW being "handed" money to take "care" of the medical side of things for retirees, they could EASILY put something like these "Minute Clinics" in EVERY Wal Mart in America.

 

Every Wal Mart I've been in already has a Pharmacy and an Optometrist (granted, I've only been in 6 Wal-Marts in 4 states, so there could be areas of the country where this isn't the case, but I digress), adding a dentist and a "clinic" would only strength the pricing power that Wal-Mart is already famous for wielding.

 

With every Wal-Mart in America with UAW-funded clinics, dentist, and vision coverage, Wal-Mart becomes its own self-reciprocating health care system. If you follow where I'm going with this already, you can stop reading, you know what Wal-Mart is famous for anyway. Conversely with UAW-funded health systems in every Wal-Mart, the blue vests are just THAT much closer to becoming organized.

 

In a perfect world, this would lead to a "UAWal-Mart", where you could get your goods from China at the same price as your health care. With strong "consumer-style" controls on health care costs, everything health related becomes affordable, and with Wal-Mart style courtesy built in, medical providers HAVE to provide Customer Service, or be eaten alive.

 

When's the last doctor's visit when the "nurses" treated YOU with any kind of respect? or when the doctor spent more than 115 seconds with YOU?

 

In UAWal-Mart we trust! :shades:

 

 

Old news. All the stores are getting clinics staffed with nurse practitioners. Physicians will not be on staff, for the most part, but they will be on call.

[sept68]

Old news. All the stores are getting clinics staffed with nurse practitioners. Physicians will not be on staff, for the most part, but they will be on call.

 

Be careful. Some insurance plans do not cover nurse practitioners for all treatments. The plan may cover the nurse and it may cover the condition. It may not cover the combination of the two. I found out the expensive way.