While Barack Obama schemes to enlarge the government's control over health care, private enterprise has stepped in to provide low cost, quality health care to Americans. Since 2000, over 1,200 private in-store clinics, typically staffed by nurse practitioners, have been opened by such companies as Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target, and CVS and have served more than 3.5 million patients, providing treatment for minor ailments, routine physicals, immunizations, and the like, and doing so more cost-effectively than traditional medical facilities.A new study, to be published in the September edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that clinics in drug stores provide care for minor ailments "on par with, or better than, other medical facilities at significantly lower costs." The quality of care offered at the in-store clinics was in line with doctors' offices and urgent care centers and slightly better than at emergency departments, Dr. Ateev Mehrotra of the University of...(Read Full Post)