Targeting Drug Middlemen Could Create More Loopholes
Lawmakers want to rein in pharmacy benefit managers. They should proceed with caution.
How much are you paying?
Photographer: George Frey/Getty Images
Congress is back in session this week with a long list of unfinished business. Topping the health-care agenda is legislation that aims to lower the cost of prescription drugs and make their prices more transparent. Although these proposals have rare bipartisan support, lawmakers should proceed cautiously. Some well-intentioned measures could backfire or prove ineffective.
Prescription drug prices in the US have been climbing steadily for decades. About a third of adults say they haven’t taken their medicines as prescribed because of the cost. Patients have also grown frustrated by seemingly arbitrary prices. Why, for example, is the same asthma inhaler $11.99 in one Ohio pharmacy and $1,136 at another?