There’s a good chance you’re overpaying for medication
In its push to lower the cost of medicine, Congress has focused on giving Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers.
Officials just announced the first 10 medicines up for negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Unfortunately, all of the attention given to that policy lets some of the worst offenders behind high drug prices off the hook: pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs — companies that function as powerful drug-industry middlemen.
Acting on behalf of insurers, PBMs use their buying clout to obtain discounts and rebates from drug makers. In theory, these savings should be passed on to patients at the pharmacy counter.
But in fact, while PBMs extract billions of dollars in profit for themselves each year, patients see little to no benefit. It’s time to change this system.
