There are plenty of ways the government could help Americans reduce their out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, especially when it comes to accessing prescription medications. President Biden’s budget proposal, which includes a tax increase as well as government price setting for prescription drugs, isn’t one of them.
Government price setting poses a threat to the introduction of new cures and treatments as it could restrict the resources researchers and scientists need to develop them. Additionally, last year’s Medicare negotiation policies haven’t even taken effect yet—who knows what impact even more government price setting could have on access and availability of prescription drugs?
The wiser policy move would be to reform the ways in which pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) conduct business. PBMs are basically the middlemen working between drug manufacturers and pharmacies. They control more than 80% of prescriptions on the market today, and yet they act with near impunity. That means that, despite the fact that they are charged with negotiating discounts for consumers, they are often able to simply keep those discounts for themselves, preventing patients from lowering their out-of-pocket costs.
The President should scrap the misguided price setting policies in his budget proposal and Congress should work to pass comprehensive PBM reform instead. That’s how we can help lower out-of-pocket costs for all Americans.
Ron and Pam Pfeifer
Brighton
