Senators Peter Welch (D-VT), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) press for action on consensus reforms that would save $2 billion over ten years by confronting pharmaceutical benefit manipulation.
Nearly four pharmacies are closing every day; Americans are missing out on hundreds of millions in savings just since the last Congress’ end.
“By whatever means, the consensus PBM reforms are long overdue and need to be enacted now. The negative impacts of inaction are mounting for Americans and for their pharmacies.”
January 22 Squawk on the Street highlights need for PBM reform, a key piece of NACDS’ “Four Wins to Make America Healthy Again”
In December, President Trump pledged to take on the middlemen in two national TV appearances in one week
“This is an important moment to fix lingering and devastating problems and to leverage tremendous opportunities for Americans and for the pharmacies and pharmacists who serve them.”
By finishing this job, Congress would turn momentum into results and make the “most significant federal progress ever in addressing PBMs’ ‘pharmaceutical benefit manipulation’”
At a news conference today at Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Donald Trump said the following:
“We are paying far too much, because we are paying far more than other countries. We have laws that make it impossible to reduce [drug costs] and we have a thing called a ‘middleman’ … that makes more money than the drug companies, and they don’t do anything except they’re middlemen. We are going to knock out the middleman.” WATCH THE CLIP
Trump’s statement today follows his remarks on December 8 during an interview on Meet the Press:
“We’re going to do a lot of things. Number one, we’re going to reduce prices – because the middleman makes more money than the drug companies in all fairness to the drug companies. There’s a middleman that nobody even knows who they are.” WATCH THE CLIP MORE PBM REFORM NEWS
“Yes” on CR with specific Medicaid and Medicare reforms is essential to confront PBM tactics that inflate American’s prescription drug costs, force pharmacy closures, and block access to Americans’ pharmacies of choice
NACDS: “As the continuing resolution is finalized, Americans and their pharmacies are watching and waiting for real PBM reform now to lower drug costs and to protect pharmacy access”.
The overwhelming realization is that PBM reform must be included in 2024 year-end Congressional legislation
