Would You Get Your Teeth Cleaned at Walmart?

BETTERCARE Joe DeSantis has been working with me on health care and a range of other policies for 15 years. He is helping me develop our Bettercare project to create a health care system that leads to longer, healthier lives, and lower medical costs for all Americans. - Newt Dentists, optometrists, and primary care physicians should take notice — you may have a big, new competitor coming to your neighborhood. And it could mean a huge drop in the prices Americans pay for health services. Last week, Walmart announced it was opening its second medical clinic. Like its first clinic in Dallas, GA, the Walmart Health Center in Calhoun, GA, conducts routine primary care, blood tests, and radiology, as well as basic dental and optometry procedures. The prices Walmart charges for these procedures are eye-opening: $25 for a teeth cleaning, $45 for a vision exam, and $30 for an annual checkup ($20 for children). Check out the full summarized price list here. Note: these are not the co-pays; they are total price. All of the prices are transparent, bundled, and easy to understand. That’s why Walmart advertises these health services as an affordable option for those without insurance. But here's where it gets interesting. I called Walmart’s Health Center in Dallas, GA. It does not accept some insurance plans, and the associate I spoke with said they are developing contracts for more. Even if you have insurance, getting your care at Walmart could mean big savings while you are in the deductible phase of your plan. One can also imagine insurance plans offering incentives for customers to go to Walmart for these routine procedures since they would cost the insurers so much less money. How does no co-pay if you go to Walmart sound to you? If you have any explanation of benefits from your insurer in your records, try comparing the rates Walmart is charging with the supposedly discounted rate your insurer negotiated with your normal provider. Traditional medical providers, especially big medical systems, could find themselves forced to drop their rates or have their patients be hit with bigger co-pays when they use their higher priced facilities. Walmart’s low prices for medical procedures also raise a more fundamental question: Why do we need insurance at all for such low-priced procedures? Many efforts at insurance reform — Obamacare in particular — have been aimed at forcing insurance to cover many basic medical services. But is that really necessary if the real price of these services is so little? Is it worth all of the extra bureaucracy and administrative overhead required to involve insurance if the prices are so low? By the way, in December we asked participants in a focus group in Charlotte and Pittsburg to react to the Walmart price sheet linked above. They reacted very positively, seeing it as a “good start” to bringing transparency to the health system and lowering prices. 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School choice programs help fix this problem by empowering parents to have more say in their children’s education. Moreover, Trump is pushing Congress to pass a federal tax credit that would provide families with more educational opportunities. The State of the Union Is Trump’s Biggest Speech. Who Writes It? By Katie Rogers New York Times The State of the Union address is always a prime opportunity for presidents to tout their achievements and outline their vision for the country’s future. But, of course, it is not as simple as a president sitting down, writing his most important annual speech, and then delivering it to the country from the House chamber. Speechwriters play a crucial role, including those currently in Trump’s White House. More Health Care News More Inner Circle News

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