Publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes said the U.S. House is close to passing ‘needed’ reforms of the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry.
“Speaker Johnson and U.S. House Republicans have needed PBM reforms on the goal line and need to push on to victory,” Forbes posted on X. “Unfair to families and seniors in #Medicare to allow big insurer-PBMs to pocket big Rx discounts (40% plus) meant for patients.
“Per President Trump, rein in the middlemen!”
Forbes is the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, a company known for its magazine and digital content focusing on business, finance, and economics. He is the son of Malcolm Forbes, the former publisher of Forbes Magazine.
Forbes ran as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000, promoting policies such as a flat tax and Social Security reform. He is the author of multiple books on economics and public policy and continues to write and speak on topics related to free markets and fiscal policy.
President-elect Donald Trump (R) said on NBC’s Meet the Press this week that, ‘We’re going to reduce prices, because the middleman makes more money than the drug companies.”
“There's a middleman that nobody even knows who they are,” said Trump.
The “middleman” being referred to by Trump is PBMs.
A PBM is a third-party administrator of prescription drug programs for health insurers, self-insured employers, and government agencies. PBMs negotiate with drug manufacturers to secure discounts and rebates on medications, manage pharmacy networks, and process prescription drug claims. PBMs also provide services such as medication therapy management and mail-order pharmacy services.
“There are around 70 PBMs in the U.S.,” reported NPR in July 2023. “Through mergers, three of them — CVS Caremark, Optum Rx, and Express Scripts — have come to control 80% of the prescription drug market, and each brings in tens of billions of dollars in revenue annually.”
Forbes’ and Trump’s comments came the same week U.S. Reps. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) and Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) introduced a bill called the “Patients Before Monopolies (PBM) Act,” which would prohibit PBMs from owning pharmacies.
“As a life-long pharmacist, I know first-hand how unchecked PBM consolidation and vertical integration have allowed these shadowy middlemen to self-deal and manipulate the system in ways that are driving up drug costs, limiting patient choices, and putting the financial screws to independent community pharmacies,” said Harshbarger.
