Could We See Lower Medicine Prices Soon?

Most of us would agree that healthcare costs are out of control. And this has nothing to do with the shooting death of the CEO of United Healthcare. This comes from someone who pays for medicine every three months and I see what it costs now. 

There could be a reprieve for American’s who take medicine on a regular basis. There’s a bipartisan effort in the Senate to force certain companies who own their own pharmacy divisions to sell those assets. 

In a day and time when it’s hard to get Republicans and Democrats to agree on anything let alone work together on an idea, but that’s what’s happening here. 

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican Senator Josh Hawley are teaming up for legislation that would force United Health Care Group, CVS Health and Cigna, which are all health insurers that own what is called Pharmacy Benefits Manager.  

The PBM for short, is a separate entity that sets the prices of the medicines we buy.  The thought behind this effort is that these companies and others like them have positioned themselves to be able to charge more for meds.  

There are also those out there according to several published reports that say healthcare costs overall have been driven up by these companies and their PBM’s. 

If the bill passes, any insurer that has a PBM will have three years to divest itself of the PBM.  

There is optimism that this can pass, again we’ve got both sides of the aisle working on this one together, that’s got to mean something, right? 

But we all know that there aren’t many industries out there with more money than the drug companies, who have high paid lobbyists on their payrolls. Could this become a reality? We can only hope and pray.