Walmart has made the unfortunate decision to shutter its health clinics, the big box retailer announced. The decision was apparently sudden. Only about a month ago Walmart announced plans to add 19 more stores in 2024. In all Walmart will close all 51 of its physician-staffed clinics. Walmart is also closing its telemedicine portals as well.
Category: Health Insurance
Wednesday Links
- Energy costs are 40% higher under Biden.
- The down side of the job market: 52% of college grads are working in jobs that don’t require the degrees they earned, a year after graduation.
- Scott Alexander responds to Robin Hanson on: Does health care matter?
- Robin responds to the response.
- Why is Walmart shutting down all of its Texas health clinics?
- More reasons to support the Wuhan lab theory.
California to Spend $500 Million on Mental Health Apps for Teens
The state of California has committed up to $500 million over four years on mental health apps to benefit teens. Many mental health advocates worry that taxpayers will not get their money’s worth nor young Californias get the care taxpayers are funding. Early signs are not encouraging. Advocates say the rollout has been slow and utilization low. So far, only about 0.1% of eligible young people have signed up.
Four Key Health Reforms
- Stop overpaying hospitals by pursuing site-neutral payments in Medicare;
- increase efficiencies in Medicare Advantage payments as laid out in Paragon’s proposal;
- let the enhanced ACA subsidies to health insurers expire after 2025; and
- Stop discriminating against traditional Medicaid enrollees (low-income kids, pregnant women, and people with disabilities) by lowering the federal subsidy rate for ACA able-bodied, working-age expansion enrollees to the rate paid for traditional enrollees.