Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) plans to open 400 in-store walk-in health clinics in the next three years, and could increase that number 2,000 within seven years. CEO Lee Scott said that "We think the clinics will be a great opportunity for our business. But most importantly, they are going to provide something our customers and communities desperately need -- affordable access at the local level to quality health care."
Wal-Mart currently operates less than 100 of these clinics, and plans to lease the space out to local hospitals or other organizations. They will be run as a separate business, with Wal-Mart's revenue coming from the rent income.
Wal-Mart continues to make progress on offering affordable health care alternatives to its customers, if not its associates. Last year the company started a $4 generic prescription drug program, and has also joined a business and labor coalition seeking comprehensive health care reform by 2012.
Wal-Mart could have a unique opportunity to combine this program with their employee benefits. If the company offered its workers and their families free in-store medical care, it could quickly become a leader in providing affordable health care to its employees. Wal-Mart has the size and power to have a positive impact on its workers lives, and it just might start doing that.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-27-2007 @ 9:17AM
john said...
Every day low prices on healthcare? We can't have that, it'll hurt the neighborhood overpriced doctors the same way they hurt the neighborhood overpriced stores! LOL!! Walmart has done more to aleviate poverty than every government program since LBJ.
:)