Posted on 08/10/2011 6:16:36 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, is planning to start selling health insurance to customers this fall.
Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens (WAG, Fortune 500) will sell health insurance products with different price ranges and coverage levels from coast-to-coast through a private health insurance exchange, according to people familiar with the matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
If they can offer a good insurance product at competitive prices, helps the public, and they make a profit, then GO FOR IT!
Yep. CVS opened their Minute Clinics...they work great. Much easier than making a doctor’s appointment if you need a quick diagnosis/prescription.
I’ve gone into our Walgreen’s and have walked out...The prices are ridiculous. So I don’t expect anything unusual in the insurance game...kinda like AARP doing you a big favor with their insurance. Nothing more than brokers.
. . .
However, Hoffman did point out one important distinction between public and private health insurance exchange. Consumers who are eligible for government subsidies can take advantage of them only in public exchanges and not in private exchanges.
------------------------------------
So like education, even when you are paying for your kid to attend private school...you will still be taxed for government school.
Paying for both will suck, but good for Walgreens for creating a private place where people can avoid the government programs.
I am distrustful. Walgreens is based in Chicago.
Interesting.
As soon as Gov't removes itself from the health area, private health enterprise is going to grow like gangbusters IMO.
Technically, Walgreen Corporation is in Deerfield, IL, which is just barely in Lake County.
When liberals say “affordable health care for all Americans”, they really mean “FREE health care”.
I think this is a great idea.
It’s very true that (unless you catch a good sale promotion) Walgreen nonprescription drugs are quite pricey. It could be worse. CVS is even pricier and has fewer sales. Wal-Mart’s Equate line of nonprescription drugs averages half the price of Walgreen’s.
If Walgreen jumps into mini-med plans, I’d expect Wal-Mart to be close on their tail to eat their lunch.
I would tend to like this except I think they are actually looking at the Obamacare mandate and lusting after a piece of that business.
I am surprised Walmart has not opened clinics in their stores. They could singlehandly bring down the price of healthcare. Think of how many locations they already have.
Plus their pharmacy business would boom.
The fact is you do not need to go see a doctor(MD) for a lot of the typical visits. This would also cut down on medicare fraud and lighten the crowds in emergency rooms across the country.
Awesome, we need more competition in the healthcare field. Wasnt walmart going to do the same?
Walgreens made it no secret, long before Obamacare was signed by Obama, that they were expecting single-payer.
Poor fools, because as with the dearly loathed British NHS, private parties will be chewed up and spit out as so much wet confetti. There’s no way to keep ahead of socialism.
I was in a huge WalMart store in Bangor, Maine yesterday.
They had a clinic in the front of the store, with a nurse sitting at a front desk. There was a large sign with prices. Almost everything was a flat fifty dollar fee; a sports physical, treatment for a cold, sprain, and a long list of treatments for various illnesses and injuries.
A few treatments were $70.
I had heard of these clinics before, but I had never seen one. The WalMart store in my area of Maine, about a 45 minute drive from Bangor, does not have a clinic. The Bangor store is larger than other WalMarts in my area, so maybe that’s why they have a clinic and the others do not.
This is good news.
We pay for our own medical insurance and the cost is high.
In my state there is almost no competition so there are few options for individuals not part of a group plan.
Pay Blue Cross rates or do without.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.