Democrats are right to tackle the issue of rising health care costs. Patients need help: insurance companies charge ever higher deductibles and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) continue to benefit from higher drug prices in order to maximize profits.
Think about every major health reform effort over the last several decades: Medicare, Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The successes of each were grounded in patient-centric reforms to our system. Now, as we work toward yet another opportunity for health care reform, dealing with drug pricing has become the major focus. But unlike the successes of the past, the leading drug cost proposals under consideration focus more on government savings rather than patient needs. This is most evident in the House bill H.R.3 and the Senate's S.2543, which call for complete overhauls of our health care system and could undermine the Medicare marketplace.
Read Full Article »