Is it June yet?
Hey Freaks,
I just want to throw out a quick update.
Things have been just as boring and monotonous as ever. I have, none the less, found some tasking to keep me busy. Or rather, it found me...
I saw this article this morning, posted on the Drudge Report, and it warmed my heart.
It would seem that Walmart is opening a number of trial clinics inside it's stores. There's nothing I like to see more than an enterprise expanding to meet the desires of it's customers. Of course, the political fallout for the company will probably be significant, especially with an election on the way. At least it was when they tried to get into banking a year or so ago. Emperor Hillary will probably accuse Walmart of trying to profit off the backs of the depressed, destitute, and uninsured masses. Which would be a shame, since that's supposed to be her job. Imagine how much better the US Government would run if it was forced to compete against a company like Walmart. Actually, I take that back...it really wouldn't be a competition at all. I for one, would rather stand in line at Walmart, than at the DMV.
Oh yeah, about the banking thing. I saw an interview with the Walmart CEO about a month ago. When asked about the companies attempt to get into the banking industry, his response was so beautifully objective it almost made me weep. He just stated that something like 20% of their customers didn't hold checking and savings accounts. That was it! And it illustrates just about everything you need to know about that company. See a need, offer a product, it's that simple.
Speaking about the clinic and health care issues, I read a piece a few weeks ago that addressed the idea of Health Insurance in an interesting way. It basically argued that the idea of Health Insurance was deeply flawed by virtue of the statistical fact that everyone will contract a severe condition of one type or another. As opposed to the "old days" when you were more likely to get sick and be told you had six weeks to live. Now, of course, almost everything is treatable, meaning longer hospital stays and expensive treatments. There's a lot more to it, of course, and the author addresses the bulk of it. I'm going to try to find it and include it in my next post.
Till next time.
Take care,
-J
I just want to throw out a quick update.
Things have been just as boring and monotonous as ever. I have, none the less, found some tasking to keep me busy. Or rather, it found me...
I saw this article this morning, posted on the Drudge Report, and it warmed my heart.
It would seem that Walmart is opening a number of trial clinics inside it's stores. There's nothing I like to see more than an enterprise expanding to meet the desires of it's customers. Of course, the political fallout for the company will probably be significant, especially with an election on the way. At least it was when they tried to get into banking a year or so ago. Emperor Hillary will probably accuse Walmart of trying to profit off the backs of the depressed, destitute, and uninsured masses. Which would be a shame, since that's supposed to be her job. Imagine how much better the US Government would run if it was forced to compete against a company like Walmart. Actually, I take that back...it really wouldn't be a competition at all. I for one, would rather stand in line at Walmart, than at the DMV.
Oh yeah, about the banking thing. I saw an interview with the Walmart CEO about a month ago. When asked about the companies attempt to get into the banking industry, his response was so beautifully objective it almost made me weep. He just stated that something like 20% of their customers didn't hold checking and savings accounts. That was it! And it illustrates just about everything you need to know about that company. See a need, offer a product, it's that simple.
Speaking about the clinic and health care issues, I read a piece a few weeks ago that addressed the idea of Health Insurance in an interesting way. It basically argued that the idea of Health Insurance was deeply flawed by virtue of the statistical fact that everyone will contract a severe condition of one type or another. As opposed to the "old days" when you were more likely to get sick and be told you had six weeks to live. Now, of course, almost everything is treatable, meaning longer hospital stays and expensive treatments. There's a lot more to it, of course, and the author addresses the bulk of it. I'm going to try to find it and include it in my next post.
Till next time.
Take care,
-J
posted by Jason Deitering at 11:17 PM
6 Comments:
Some of their data are not factual. There are not longer hospital stays. Quite the contrary. Thirty five years ago a woman stayed in the hospital five days after a normal birth delivery, now it is like 24 hours. Insurance companies are totally dictating what, when, and how they will pay. Women's health care issues are still behind the times. They have a very strong lobby that benefits the company, not the consumer.
First of all, if the average post-delivery stay has gone from 5 days to 1 over the last 35 years, and the price per day is 500% of what it was 35 years ago, then accounting for inflation, the cost of a delivery is the same as it was 35 years ago. Now stay with me, if the cost of one day in the hospital is greater than 5X what it was, then you would have to agree that there isn't any cost savings by sending a mother and her newborn home sooner than they used to, correct?
Because I feel very confident that I can find numbers that put the cost of a bed per day WAY over the 500% mark.
Second, and I want you to take this point very, very seriously, YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER!!!
You are the recipient of the product or service, but the role of the customer is being played by your insurance company. That is what you get when you have that dynamite health package that has you paying an incredibly small portion of the costs. You are trading away your role as the customer in order to receive cheap "care".
If you take the side of the Insurance industry against the Consumer, there is definitely a job waiting for you when you get out of the military. But you won't like it for long. Trust me, since our industry is dictated too by the insurance companies, and the correct word is dictate, they are not your friend. If they are in such dire straights, then why do their CEO's and Insurance Agents receive huge benefits packages, taking elaborate paid for by the company vacations, sponsoring super bowls etc. off the back of Joe Blow? Cut backs, raising rates and chisseling is the name of their game. That is why I support Walmart's efforts.
God I love debating you. You just love getting me riled up... How about a drink?
Gee this insurance business sounds like a real winner. You get to control the lives of lots of people, make obscene profits and get the government to keep sending you more customers!
Who was it that said "there are no bad risks just bad premiums" or something like that? JP Morgan?
But I have to agree. Wal-Mart can likely give hospitals and doctors a run for their money. They will no doubt be accused of all sorts of heinous crimes like making a profit off the poor, taking money out of the mouths of established doctors and running "non-profit" hospitals out of business. But can they save money for customers whose only real alternative today is an emergency room and thus keep the customers coming back? If not they won't stay in that business long.
When I said that Insurance Companies had taken your place as the true consumers of medical related products and services, I didn't mean to suggest it was a good thing. As far as patients and taxpayers go, it's bad. I also think it would be beneficial for the conservative movement to re-phrase some of the terms here. "Health plan" being one of them. Now, I hate it when the Libs throw around goofy terminology to confuse the issues and hide their true intentions, but I think the emphasis on healthy habits on the part of Americans is something that should be focused on. It seems to me that a "Health Plan" should be something you have to keep you healthy. What it isn't, is a contingency plan for when your sick, that sound more like a "Sickness Plan" or a "Recovery Plan". Americans as a whole need to be reminded that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. What they hear from Hillary and Obama now is "don't worry about prevention, the cure will be paid by for by somebody else".
As far as the clinics in the Walmarts go, Walmart won't actually own or run them, they're just leasing out space to other clinics and hospitals. It's just a test at this point, anyway.
Can we all just "make nice"?
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