The New York Times‘ “analysis” today of the Wal-Mart plan to sell some generic drugs for $4 per 30-day supply is (surprise!) not all it was initially cracked up to be:
Health care analysts were quick to point out that Wal-Mart has carefully chosen which drugs it will cover – 300 out of roughly 11,000 generic drugs available. Moreover, it is not offering some expensive drugs, like any of the cholesterol-lowering statins, at the $4 price. And some of the drugs covered, like generic ibuprofen, cost very little and may be currently available for less than $4. “They are not losing money on all these products,” said Patricia Wilson, a health care consultant.
Yeah, it’s really not a good deal because unrelentingly capitalistic Wal-Mart is only offering some of the drugs at a great deal and is not willing to take a bath on much more expensive pharmaceuticals. Liberals aren’t happy until businesses lose money in the process of giving their workers unlimited benefits. Wait, that’s not true, because I don’t know of anybody who’s too happy about Ford and GM right now…
