The media have been full of stories about how there will be plenty of flu vaccine this year. What they didn’t explain is the proviso that there will be plenty if you want to go to Walgreens or Wal-Mart for your flu vaccine. Your physician may be rationing vaccinations. And therein lies a story, which is explained in my latest column at BusinessWeek.com. Suffice it to say that the Walgreens and Wal-Marts of the world want a share of your personal physician’s profits.
At first, the idea of Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and Costco branching out from eye exams to perform other medical procedures like vaccinations and blood tests rubbed me the wrong way. I hate to see huge corporations honing in on small businesses of any sort. But when you really think about it, is it really so terrible? Everyone can use competition, and certainly the medical profession can, since it has enjoyed something akin to a monopoly for many decades, as you can tell from the arrogance of many practitioners.
A BusinessWeek article last summer provides a peek into this new world of mass merchandisers providing medical care, and it’s not nearly as terrifying a view as one might imagine. It’s a world in which it’s possible to obtain basic medical care on short notice, and to seek out certain treatments on weekends without having to waste a day waiting in a hospital emergency room–all at reasonable cost.
Whomever thought our health care mess would begin to be solved by Wal-Mart and Walgreens? Stay tuned.
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