Nicholas Waddy: The Road to Riches for Big Pharma

Imagine for a moment if there were a small, but benevolent, organization that would negotiate in good faith and with pharmaceutical giants. Wholesalers Three of them control 90 percent of America’s market. lower drug prices Medicare: 20% and could The average American can save $ Nearly $1000 per year

Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? This sounds like the kind of organization that you would want to give a tip to and which you’d expect the leaders of our country to support, both for the good of public health and fiscal sanity.

One part of this fictional tale is true. The other half is fiction. I bet you know which one is which.

The PBMs (pharmacy-benefit managers) are real. These PBMs were established to allow Medicare and large insurance plans to negotiate lower drug costs in an environment in that Americans are paying, as we all know the highest prices for pharmaceuticals ever! Americans actually pay more for many of the most popular drugs in the world than patients or consumers. The rest of the globe combined. Ouch!

PBMs are a great tool that saves us money. They are a huge time-saver. $150 billion annually. They are a large part of Medicare’s ability to continue being solvent. When we add up the positive effect they have had and will have on Medicare, it comes out to a net savings. Trillions! Wow.

Remember that no consumer or health insurance plan is forced to use PBMs. Given the number of benefits, it is a choice that you make.

Let me now tell you about the fictional part.

Given the excellent work PBMs have done, and continue to do so, you would think that Congress and federal regulators would look for ways to support and strengthen PBMs. But you would be wrong.

The Federal Trade Commission of the Biden administration is increasingly looking to crackdown on PBMs. In fact, the Senate is considering a bill called the “PBMs Act.” “PBM Transparency Act”, proposed by Senator Maria Cantwell (D – Washington), which would go even further.

Why would this be? Could this be due to the fact that Big Pharma has given? Record-breaking levels Joe Biden’s support? Oder could it be related the almost $3 billion On average, the industry has spent $800 million Lobbying for Congress Seit 2008?

Nah. No.

We have every right to expect that all aspects of our health system, including PBMs will be examined and held accountable, given the fact that we pay more per capita and aggregately for health care than any other country in history. However, when federal bureaucrats and politicians gang up against the few institutions that are keeping the floodgates from opening and keeping health insurance affordable for you and I, we have a right not to be surprised.

Big Pharma and D.C. insiders conspired for too long to increase corporate profits. Medical bills have been the mainstay of medical expenses for decades. leading cause This country is at risk of bankruptcy

We have good reasons to believe that, if Senator Cantwell and Joe Biden get their way, it will make an already bad system worse.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy, Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred, blogs at: www.waddyisright.com. He appears on WLEA’s Newsmaker Show, WLEA 140/106.9.