UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna’s PBMs are using their market share and pull in Washington to drive one of the key levers to manage healthcare costs—independent pharmacies—out of business.
I live in a rural area with each town separated by about 10-15 miles. This is mountainous terrain, near the Canadian border. It gets cold enough, and snowy enough, that driving between towns is not as easy as the 10-15 miles might suggest to those living near highways (we have no highway here). We used to have two pharmacies in most of our towns, Kinney and Rite Aid. I believe Kinney is a northeastern chain, but I don't know how far it extends out of northern NY. At any rate, about 6 or 7 years ago, Walgreens acquired Rite Aid. It was ok for a bit and then they closed most of the Walgreens, leaving only the one in the main tourist town. People went from two choices to one choice. I remember reading about monopolies when I was in grade school and this seemed like classic monopoly making. Where are the regulators? Oh, yeah. The regulators sometimes are regulators and sometimes are corporate executives. It doesn't help the average person pay for their medications or even have reasonable driving access to a suitable place to get their medications. And there is zero chance of independent pharmacies competing with this.
Then there is the question of why so many drugs are prescription when they could easily be over the counter. It is insanity that oral contraceptives (birth control pills) require a doctor visit and a prescription. Make them over the counter and allow people to purchase them through the mail from Walmart, (just like Benadryl, famotidine, cetirizine, omeprazole, and countless others are purchased) and the price will fall. Even drugs like insulin and epi pens should be over the counter. Do that, allow Walmart and the like to make their store brand of it, and prices will fall. And that might also help the severe shortage of primary care that we have up here in the North Country. Stop wasting the doctor's time prescribing things that people can figure out if they need all on their own and the doctors will have time to dedicate to people who really need their care.
It's all just one big cartel that enriches the corporate overlords on the backs of the regular people.
Yep! Since big pharma has suggested that some of their drugs can cause weight loss, too many Americans have decided to use them. So what? The shortages of Trulicity has caused my husband to use to Ozempic for his type 2 diabetes. Cost is a $1090 for a 90 day supply of Ozempic with Optum paying the balance. This is outrageous for us on a retired fixed income! He has to wait until Lilly manufactures more Trulicity to be able to get any. Who is making all the money here?
The FDA should allow the medical patients access to drugs before any of them are disbursed to fad weight loss customers.
I live in a rural area with each town separated by about 10-15 miles. This is mountainous terrain, near the Canadian border. It gets cold enough, and snowy enough, that driving between towns is not as easy as the 10-15 miles might suggest to those living near highways (we have no highway here). We used to have two pharmacies in most of our towns, Kinney and Rite Aid. I believe Kinney is a northeastern chain, but I don't know how far it extends out of northern NY. At any rate, about 6 or 7 years ago, Walgreens acquired Rite Aid. It was ok for a bit and then they closed most of the Walgreens, leaving only the one in the main tourist town. People went from two choices to one choice. I remember reading about monopolies when I was in grade school and this seemed like classic monopoly making. Where are the regulators? Oh, yeah. The regulators sometimes are regulators and sometimes are corporate executives. It doesn't help the average person pay for their medications or even have reasonable driving access to a suitable place to get their medications. And there is zero chance of independent pharmacies competing with this.
Then there is the question of why so many drugs are prescription when they could easily be over the counter. It is insanity that oral contraceptives (birth control pills) require a doctor visit and a prescription. Make them over the counter and allow people to purchase them through the mail from Walmart, (just like Benadryl, famotidine, cetirizine, omeprazole, and countless others are purchased) and the price will fall. Even drugs like insulin and epi pens should be over the counter. Do that, allow Walmart and the like to make their store brand of it, and prices will fall. And that might also help the severe shortage of primary care that we have up here in the North Country. Stop wasting the doctor's time prescribing things that people can figure out if they need all on their own and the doctors will have time to dedicate to people who really need their care.
It's all just one big cartel that enriches the corporate overlords on the backs of the regular people.
Yep! Since big pharma has suggested that some of their drugs can cause weight loss, too many Americans have decided to use them. So what? The shortages of Trulicity has caused my husband to use to Ozempic for his type 2 diabetes. Cost is a $1090 for a 90 day supply of Ozempic with Optum paying the balance. This is outrageous for us on a retired fixed income! He has to wait until Lilly manufactures more Trulicity to be able to get any. Who is making all the money here?
The FDA should allow the medical patients access to drugs before any of them are disbursed to fad weight loss customers.