Wal-Mart announced Thursday a pilot program in Florida to sell about 300 generic prescription drugs for as low as $4 for a 30-day supply.The program will be available to both insured and uninsured consumers, and will cover 291 generic medicines for things like allergies, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Some antibiotics, antidepressants, antipsychotics and prescription vitamins are also covered under the new plan, the world's largest retailer said.
The company said it would soon run radio and newspapers ads listing drugs included in the program.
The program, due to start Friday, will be available to customers and employees at 65 Wal-Mart stores, Wal-Mart neighborhood market stores and Sam's Club pharmacies in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area. The company hopes to expand the program to its 3,900 pharmacies nationwide in January 2007.
Is this a good or bad thing? If you are a senior who is caught in the blessed "doughnut hole" of our new Medicaid drug plan, it is wonderful. If you are a pharmacy it is awful. Wal-Mart can do what only the federal government can do - leverage its enormous size to demand low prices for drugs. This will bring more people into the store who will buy more things and make Wal-Mart more profitable and more able to drive competitors out of business.
This kind of move just postpones the day when we get to a single-payer healthcare plan and the federal government does what it ought to be doing anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment