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Affordable health care

By Mike Huckabee

September 20, 2019
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Before the Democrat Congress forced Obamacare on America (and long before we started hearing about “Medicare For All”), I was saying that we needed a solution to providing affordable health care that had both government and market components.  My suggestion was a subsidized pool for those with serious health problems who couldn’t afford or qualify for private insurance, and free market reforms to reduce costs for everyone else, like making prices for health services transparent and increasing competition across state lines.  

Well, while the Democrats are pushing the budget-busting, rationed-care, government takeover model, Walmart is testing a pilot program to see if transparent pricing and consumer-based competition can make basic health care affordable even for those without insurance.  Here’s an article about the one in Dallas, Georgia:

https://mises.org/wire/walmarts-healthcare-experiment-has-begun-it-may-be-game-changer

The program is called Walmart Health, and the chain is putting clinics in several of its Superstores around the country to test it. Depending on the store, you might get an annual check-up for $30, an eye exam for $45 or a dental exam for $25, x-rays included.  That’s not the co-pay, it’s the full price even if you don’t have insurance.  Talk about one-stop-shopping: while Dad is checking out the power tools, Mom can get an ear exam, a flu shot and even low-cost counseling to help her deal with Dad’s power tool habit. The prices are all posted online, where you can also see if there’s one near you and easily schedule an appointment.

https://walmarthealth.com/Departments

If Walmart can prove that free-market solutions can provide affordable health care for all and we don’t need the government taking over, it will give us all reason to celebrate. Except leftist elites, who’ll have one more reason to hate Walmart and those of us who shop there. 

 

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Comments 1-3 of 3

  • Edward Brewer Jr

    09/24/2019 08:13 AM

    I do have sympathy for those who do not have insurance. That being said, how can doctors, hospitals, and the pharmaceuticals continue unregulated. As a cancer patient still in chemo treatments, my insurance company has paid over $140,000.00 so far. And my treatments have to be authorized by that same insurance company. So who is getting rich, and who actually pays for it? The American people. Regulation is a must.

  • Joseph R. Warren

    09/23/2019 11:30 AM

    I like the Walmart concept because it really deals with the cost of health care rather than just the cost of paying for the ever increasing cost of health care. The affordable care act has very little to do with the cost of health care. It is all about insurance programs that pay for the cost. Medicare for all is the same thing. Cost keep going up and the Government keeps dreaming up new, and ever more expensive to the taxpayer, ways to pay for it. We must start attacking the actual cost. How about legislation that reduces the time drug companies enjoy exclusivity on new drugs. Do they really need 17 years of protection to recoup their development costs? What about a program to reduce doctors and pharmacists student loan debt if they stick to a low cost fee schedule. We could reduce their debt in 1 tenth increments over a 10 year period and if they choose to raise their fees after 10 years there will be a new supply of doctors coming out of college that they will have to compete with. This type of program would allow people who can afford it to pay for whatever kind of concierge service they want but for the rest of us the price of health care would become affordable.

  • Raymond D Babcock

    09/20/2019 02:53 PM

    The American federal government needs and must be ran like a business. A well ran business can afford perks like health care. Does congress use the health care forced on the people with lies?

Mike Huckabee

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