Charlie , you aren't close. Drug prices are too damn high. But the big culprit isn't the brand manufacturers, it's the big middlemen. Namely PBMs. They work so hard to distort pricing the first lines in their contracts with everyone is "you can't disclose any of this "
How bad are they , have you ever seen them disclose a net price list ?
For your company Charlie, ask your PBM for a list of claims and the price paid for each med.
Let us know if you can get them
This EO has a real shot. And big pharma isn't innocent. But it's the PBMs that have screwed things up
Separate formularies from jem and make them disclose all claims to employers and manufacturers and we may be able to get brand meds cheaper than many countries
Eliminating big PBMs from Ohio Medicaid saved $140 mill in 2 years while increasing payments to pharmacies.
Increasing transparency and eliminating steering & big PBM pricing games = massive savings. Time for feds to follow suit across Fed plans. PFBA https://t.co/uxO5KbOQqD
Yesterday, I traveled to Arkansas, the state that is the first to take the life-saving movement toward breaking up the health insurance and healthcare monopolies. "The bill will ban PBMs (Optum RX, CVS Caremark, & Express Scripts) from obtaining a license to own their own pharmacies in Arkansas. It will also force PBMs that currently own their own pharmacies here to sell those pharmacies by Jan. 26, 2026. It is a clear conflict of interest that the PBMs — which set reimbursement rates on drug costs for all pharmacies and determine which drugs a health plan will cover — should also own their own pharmacies. Time and time again, PBMs use this unfair advantage to generate a windfall of immense profit for themselves at the expense of patients. They steer patients to their own pharmacies — and they pay their own pharmacies a better reimbursement rate on drug costs than they do their local, independent competitors.
The result: higher drug prices for all patients, fewer choices of where patients can obtain those drugs, and worse quality of care — as local pharmacies close."
May Missouri & all other states be next as we await federal legislators to pull it together!
Thank you to every beautiful person in our nation fighting for change, justice, & protection.
@FTC@HawleyMO@JasonSmithMO