The Silent Market-Based Evolution
Anyone forced to pay a lawyer for relatively simple tasks like a business incorporation or will have experienced the control that "licensed professonals" exert over us. These legal monopolies restrict choice and drive up costs.
Likewise, consumers who are fed up with the lack of control they have over their health care spending are increasingly turning to low-cost retail clinics for care.
Convenience and expense are two reasons uninsured patients who suspect they have a routine, minor ailment such as the flu, strep throat, simple bronchitis or a skin condition should consider visiting a retail clinic...
Retail clinics also typically offer vaccinations and physicals for school, camp or sports on a walk-in basis, and they're open evenings and weekends. They're located in national chain stores such as Walgreens and CVS/pharmacy as well as hospital systems. They're staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants who can diagnose, treat and prescribe medication.
Unlike emergency rooms and other health-care settings where there's no way to know how much the final bill will be, retail clinics post their prices on a menu board and often online.
I've written about a chain called Any Lab Test Now, where you can get screening results for everything from cholesterol levels to sexually transmitted diseases without paying a physician for a referral.
Economist Mark Perry writes that despite the struggling economy, retail clinics are booming in popularity.
At the end of 2006, there were only 200 retail clinics in the United States. As of March 1, 2010 the number of retail clinics operating surpassed 1,200, which is an amazing 6-fold increase in just over 3 years for the number of convenient, affordable retail clinics operating in the U.S. At the same time that Congress and the President orchestrate a government takeover of America's health care system and capture all of the media attention, a more silent revolution is taking place, as market-based alternatives like convenient, low-cost retail clinics are expanding daily, saving American consumers millions of dollars and putting Americans back in charge of their health care spending.
Entrepreneurs once again succeed where government and entrenched special interests fail.
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