Employers are on the move trying at some free market solutions

Type 1 and LADA
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They made a movie about PBMs. Let me know if you can view it.

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Really useful and clear. I didn’t see a link for a transcript but if one is available that would be helpful.

30:18: Tripling of costs over 20 yrs is “is not additional utilization, it’s inflation. And it’s not general inflation, it’s medical inflation. If the insurance companies have been responsible for controlling the cost of care, and there has been a tripling of the cost of care over the last 20 years, they’re either incredibly incompetent, or they aren’t trying.”

Also some great quotes on PBM contracts and what their language actually says.

Reading from the contract: “The PBM and their wholly owned subsidiaries and affiliates act on their own behalf, not for the benefit of or as agents of the sponsored members of the plan.”

Lawyer “What it says is that the PBM is collecting all this money for their own benefit; what it chooses to share with the client ultimately is up to the PBM.”

Translation: “Our only role is to get between insurers and clients in order to siphon money out of the transaction and into our bank accounts.” It has never been clear to me what the PBMs’ value-added is, even theoretically. Somewhere buried in their 800-page contract it pretty much just answers that question straight out:

Nothing.

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It was half the length of the movie that the pharmacists made. Huge mass communication success. :sweat_smile: Not as much detail, but lots of people just can’t tolerate a full 2 hour discussion on drug pricing.

I’ve been super stressed out about when this FTC case gets settled because I imagine it’s the only way my life and participation in the economy can begin. I’ve been hanging on it. This has delayed everything while they explore the limits of executive power. Biden appointee fights 'illegal firing' as 90-year-old FTC precedent faces test | Fox News They need judges from both parties in order to produce a ruling on the insulin case.

I think that we are still OK. This will delay the restoration of free markets in the US. But Ferguson clarifies (April):

One of you all asked me what DOJ meant by “deregulation.” I’ll admit that I didn’t really know and the terminology also made me nervous.