To Trump, Congress: Forget foreign drug pricing, focus on PBM reform

Independent Newsmedia

Because of Type 2 diabetes and long-haul COVID, I require daily medications, including insulin, to manage my symptoms and avoid hospitalization. The high cost of insulin alone has put me on the edge of financial instability.

I want health care industry reform as much as anybody, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think President Trump was right to point out that other countries don’t pay their fair share for investments in innovation.

But his Most Favored Nation Executive Order and plan to impose overseas prescription drug price controls here won’t help patients like me. Most Favored Nation doesn’t deliver patient savings or fix confusing drug formularies that restrict access to medications sick people need to survive.

If President Trump wants to help us, he and Congress will forget about foreign pricing and fix Pharmacy Benefit Managers instead. PBMs profit when drug prices are high. They force mom-and-pop pharmacies out of business, manipulate the supply chain so low-cost generics are scarce and push patients to use deluxe pharmacies offering the most expensive brand-name drugs.

PBM reform is an immediate step our lawmakers can take to protect patients dealing with chronic illness and struggling to stay healthy as best they can. The House just passed PBM reform, and the Senate must do the same.

Fixing PBMs will bring the transparency and savings patients want and that Most Favored Nation can’t deliver.

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