The Virtues of Wal-Mart

The Virtues of Wal-Mart

Yes, they do have some. I went to pick up a thyroid prescription for my wife yesterday at Albertson's. At first, it was going to be $14 and change (because it is under the copayment amount for Blue Cross). Then, the Albertson's prescription computer reduced it to $4--because that's what the same prescription costs at Wal-Mart, and Albertson's has decided that they don't want to lose prescription customers (who also buy groceries) to Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart claims that the list of medications on their $4 list "represents up to 95 percent of the prescriptions written in the majority of therapeutic categories." (That's rather weasel worded, isn't it?) It doesn't include Lipitor, presumably because that isn't a generic yet--but it does seem to include an astonishing number of drugs, but I do see a lot of drugs that some people will be on for life, and that are important bipolar and antipsychotic treatments: HALOPERIDOL and LITHIUM CARBONATE, for example.

I've got a lot to say against Wal-Mart, but when you make medications that are necessary for many people to live--and others to maintain their sanity--for $4 a month, that can cover a host of other sins. Remember that, the next time that labor unions decide that Wal-Mart is the source of all evil in the world.