Posted on 07/29/2024 8:02:59 PM PDT by lyby
If you are experiencing increased healthcare insurance and prescription costs, one reason may be the growing, middleman business of pharmacy benefit managers (PBM). The most recent article at The Alabama Examiner addresses Tennessee's PBM reform enacted in 2021. Alabamians are working hard to save our hometown pharmacies being driven out of business! https://www.alabamaexaminer.com/post/pbm-reform-enacted-in-tennessee-why-not-alabama
I have fairly in-depth knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry to know that while we pay in the US $10-$200 a pill for many drugs, the cost outside of the US is $0.10-$2 a pill.
The drug companies bribe Congress to allow this.
Perhaps Indians can run them next to casinos on their reservations.
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Interesting comment! The “gambling bill” failed in Alabama during the last legislative session:
“According to multiple sources, one of the biggest issues in pulling Republican senators off the bill is a provision that devotes revenue to an expansion of health care services within the state. The expansion is not traditional Medicaid expansion, but a public-private partnership between the state, Blue Cross Blue Shield and other health insurers that would devote tax dollars to providing private insurance plans to some low-income Alabamians.”
https://www.alreporter.com/2024/02/23/health-care-expansion-lack-of-communication-threaten-gambling-legislation/
And PBMs are the middleman, generating huge profits for ??? - what you wrote plus what is nontransparent at the state level.
From my notes taken during the presentation of a local pharmacy owner:
Caremark is the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of CVS.
Optum, including pharmacy benefit manager, is a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare.
Express Scripts, another pharmacy benefit manager, is a subsidiary of Cigna.
Yep. “Managed Services” is the mantra. They are simply the middleman for the same company to take even more profits.
Been getting pressure by someone to switch from our local pharmacy to a major network like Walmart- keep getting mail telling me how wonderful it will be to switch-
For now, they are just “suggesting” a switch, but I imagine in the near future it will become a demand to switch, and our local pharmacy will be out of business
I imagine in the near future it will become a demand to switch
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From what I am hearing and reading about this convoluted, complicated, and confusing situation, the end goal is the elimination of brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Most, if not all, prescriptions will be filled through mail-order - doncha know that’s “cheaper.”
Yup, that is what they keep telling me in letters- cheaper, more convenient etc but the fact is if they screw up an order, it will take forever to get it sorted, and who knows if they can even get certainthings like local pharmacy does? They work with me on issues personally, that day, and resolve them- not gonna get that kind of service from mail order meds I don’t beleive.
Sad that gov is destroying small businesses in favor of large corporations which donate campaign funds to them
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