The insurance company/pharmacy merger could have been fixed to prevent market power, even if it wasn’t totally blocked.
PBMs
Posted inEconomic Policy
Why the Aetna and CVS Merger Is So Dangerous
Aetna and CVS have more incentive than ever to use their market power to crush competition, and the Justice Department just gave them the opportunity.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Trump Eliminates the Middleman
His administration takes aim at the heretofore legal kickbacks to prescription drug distributors—but leaves the drug companies themselves untouched.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The Corporate Scam that Even Trump Opposes: PBMs
The administration’s welcome proposal to break up pharmacy benefit managers
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Abusing Drugs
How CVS uses its market power to destroy competing independent pharmacies.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Single Payer? How About a Profit-Driven Single Provider?
The CVS-Aetna merger creates a price-setting behemoth for medications.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Want to Bring Down Drug Prices? Go After the Middleman
“Pharmacy benefit managers”—companies that claim to lower prices—actually jack them up.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices
How pharmacy benefit managers morphed from processors to predators