Free Republic

pharmacy benefit managers keep a big chunk for themselves — on average, $0.42 of every $1 spent on brand-name drugs in the commercial market, by one estimate .... “Shark Tank” entrepreneur Mark Cuban launched the Cost Plus Drug Company in 2022 to bypass these middlemen....The company tacks on 15 percent for overhead and a $5 filling fee.

Abusive, monopolistic behavior is never popular: just ask John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, or J.P. Morgan. Nor, for that matter, is it sustainable, no matter how many high powered lobbyists you hire to control the debate in Washington, DC. Sooner or later, monopolists back the wrong horse, and someone comes to power who owes them nothing. Just ask President Theodore Roosevelt, and now President Donald Trump.But where Roosevelt famously wrung the life out of the aforementioned tycoons and their trusts, President Trump faces two very different but no less abusive foes: the Snowflake Barons of the tech sector, and the...

Before entering public service at the federal level, I spent most of my life serving my community in a different way. As a pharmacist for more than 30 years, I saw firsthand the impact that prescription drug prices have on everyday citizens and families. As a result of research and development I have seen improvements in medications that save lives. Illnesses that were once a death sentence are now treatable with a prescription. While this is nothing short of a miracle, these advances are worthless if they are not affordable. I have seen elderly couples forced to choose between their...

When I first started becoming aware of how sleazy, parasitic and corrupt the U.S. economy was, I only had expertise in one industry, financial services. Coming to grips with the blatant criminality of the TBTF Wall Street banks and their enablers at the Federal Reserve and throughout the federal government, I thought this was the main issue that needed to be confronted. What I’ve learned in the years since is pretty much every industry in America is corrupt to the core, more focused on sucking money away from helpless citizens via rent-seeking schemes versus actually producing a product and adding...