Insurance boycott

Folk Fury

Old and in the way
I'm probably not up to speed on this subject but my wife likes to shop at Wal-mart and Sam's Club. I've told her it probably isn't a good idea since they are non-union.
Anyway, yesterday she came home hotter than a $2 pistol. It seems Sam's & Wal-Mart pharmacies will not honor our insurance because it is Union affiliated. Yet another reason to boycott Wal-Mart.
 

upsdude

Well-Known Member
I'm probably not up to speed on this subject but my wife likes to shop at Wal-mart and Sam's Club. I've told her it probably isn't a good idea since they are non-union.
Anyway, yesterday she came home hotter than a $2 pistol. It seems Sam's & Wal-Mart pharmacies will not honor our insurance because it is Union affiliated. Yet another reason to boycott Wal-Mart.

I use a "chain" store on my route. First I've heard about Wal-Mart not accepting our insurance.
 

beentheredonethat

Well-Known Member
I'm probably not up to speed on this subject but my wife likes to shop at Wal-mart and Sam's Club. I've told her it probably isn't a good idea since they are non-union.
Anyway, yesterday she came home hotter than a $2 pistol. It seems Sam's & Wal-Mart pharmacies will not honor our insurance because it is Union affiliated. Yet another reason to boycott Wal-Mart.
Don't know about the particulars in your area. I've seen up here in the Northeast certain drug stores not honoring certain insurance drug plans due to the reimbursement they get from the insurance companies. Why would a drug store want to sell a drug to you that cost them (with overhead) 30 and sell it to you\your insurance company for 30 or less. There's a lot of things you can say about Walmart. But I've never seen them check people at the registars to see if you were union or not before paying. Your dollars are just as good as anyone elses.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
When we got the new insurance cards, there was a paper with them saying they could not be used at Walmart or Sams.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
"..check people at the registars to see if you were union.."

It's not hard to check. The pharmacy card has a big Teamster logo and says TEAMSTER RX!
 

beentheredonethat

Well-Known Member
"..check people at the registars to see if you were union.."

It's not hard to check. The pharmacy card has a big Teamster logo and says TEAMSTER RX!
Over9five, My point is that companies like WalMart don't refuse to serve paying customers just because they are union. In the case above, they refuse to deal with certain insurance providers since they don't reimburse enough to make a profit on the transaction. If you ask your Dr or local phamacist, they guy who actually owns his own business, not the one who works at a CVS or walmart pharmacy. I'm sure they will tell you there are some plans that aren't good on reimbursement and some of those they don't even accept new patients for. Has nothing to do with the person or weather they are union.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
BTDT, I agree with your reasoning.

I tried to find a TeamsterCare link to explain this. Thinking back on it, the paper that came with the card made it sound like it was the Teamsters decision not to use Walmart. I think Walmart would be happy to serve us, if they were allowed to.
 

Folk Fury

Old and in the way
BTDT, I agree with your reasoning.

I tried to find a TeamsterCare link to explain this. Thinking back on it, the paper that came with the card made it sound like it was the Teamsters decision not to use Walmart. I think Walmart would be happy to serve us, if they were allowed to.


It could be a Teamster decision I suppose. All I know is the pharmacist at Wallyworld told her they would not honor our insurance because it was a Union plan. I always figured the greedy s.o.b.'s would take a dollar from anyone.
 

Just Lurking

Well-Known Member
A CS rep explained to us that the prescription plan is "competiively" bid ro all pharmacies. Almost all of pharmacies that are accepted by the plan bid with small range of cost. But Wal-Mart was consistently a higher cost bidder, so they were dropped from the plan. If (and I say if for tin-foil crowd) this the case, they need to be dropped from the plan. Why can all of the major national pharmacies and grocery store pharmacies can bid (accept) a lower reimbursement and not the largest "always lower prices" retailer.

Wal-Mart is cheaper prices on crappy merchandise. When you look at higher quality and priced merchandise that can be found at different retailers -the price is mere pennies.
 

dannyboy

From the promised LAND
Because walmar will never sell anything but what they will make their 20-30% off of.

I use a small pharmacy where each one of the pharmacists knows the people coming in. They are and always have been glad to take the insurance that we have.

The only thing that walmart has on other stores is that you can find a lot of different things under one roof. Their prices are geared not to be low, but to be lower than the other stores in town. When those other stores go under, then you no longer have lower prices and are at their mercy. Unfair, yes. But there are those companies like Costco that pay their people three times walmarts wages, have better quality items, and still either matches or beats sams club. And they have a pharmacy as well, so shop at costco.

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speeddemon

Guest
We use Walgreens. Never had a problem there. Always had to wait for 20*30 minutes at walmart.
 

beentheredonethat

Well-Known Member
Because walmar will never sell anything but what they will make their 20-30% off of.

I use a small pharmacy where each one of the pharmacists knows the people coming in. They are and always have been glad to take the insurance that we have.

The only thing that walmart has on other stores is that you can find a lot of different things under one roof. Their prices are geared not to be low, but to be lower than the other stores in town. When those other stores go under, then you no longer have lower prices and are at their mercy. Unfair, yes. But there are those companies like Costco that pay their people three times walmarts wages, have better quality items, and still either matches or beats sams club. And they have a pharmacy as well, so shop at costco.

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Danny I agree about using a local small pharmacy, except the only ones around here like you describe have terrible hours. There's no way to get a prescription unless you have someone in the family who doesn't work, or you take a day off. I use CVS myself, they have tons of stores, very convenient hrs, some are open 24/7. Also, I've heard great things about Costco. Unfortunately the closest one to me is about one hour away.
 

dannyboy

From the promised LAND
Closest costco to me is three hours away. Worth the trip at least once a month. The closest Sams is 5 miles, and two super wallyworlds within 15. Dont go there unless I have to.

My pharmacywas on my route, and has a pickup that was picked up last. I delivered them first thing. Drop the script off in the Am, pick it up at lunch if I needed to, or at the end of the day.

A couple of years ago we went out to yellowstone. Had a script that was damaged due to a twister hitting the motorhome, lot of water damage. Went to the walgreens, had them call my pharmacy, and they gave me a refil on the script.

So like I said, too many of the small guys going out. I hate to see only two or three business vending a product. There is a question on price fixing when that happens.

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