When I worked as a family physician in Vermont, I wrote countless prescriptions to help patients manage their health. If I were still practicing, I'd undoubtedly be worried sick about my patients' ability to pay for their medicines. Too often, patients today fail to fill scripts because of high out-of-pocket costs.
Lawmakers have worked hard to expand access to medicines over the years, most recently in last year's Inflation Reduction Act. However, price-based access problems remain. One big reason is the predatory practices of middlemen in the drug supply chain–pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). It's high time for our lawmakers to bring their profiteering to heel.
