A conservative tax organization presses Republican senators to reject Pharmacy Benefit Manager reform.
A conservative tax organization is targeting a handful of Senate Republicans with a multimillion-dollar campaign to gain support for altering a vital component of the drug pricing system ahead of a healthcare package vote likely this month.
According to Fox News Digital, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is targeting Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., as well as Republican senators Katie Britt of Alabama, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, for speaking out against Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs).
“Every American and fiscal conservative in Congress should oppose the Bernie Sanders-led effort to expand government control over our healthcare system,” stated CCAGW President Tom Schatz. “CCAGW has fought for decades to prevent a government takeover of the healthcare system and is now launching this latest multifaceted effort to prevent the enactment of any legislation that would move the country closer to socialized medicine.”
The campaign of the fiscal watchdog will include grassroots activity, internet messaging, and other types of media engagement.
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PBMs have lately been under bipartisan attention as politicians face increased pressure to help stem the soaring cost of prescription medications and other treatments. PBMs, such as CVS Caremark, are a go-between for pharmaceutical makers and insurance companies to negotiate prescription prices for millions of Americans.
There is minimal public knowledge about their procedures or standards. It has caused Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a public healthcare champion and chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, to attempt to place further regulatory restrictions on the activities of PBMs.
However, other conservative organizations, such as CCAGW, think that limiting PBMs’ activity would place an unnecessary burden on millions of patients who depend on their services and US taxpayers who would have to foot the tab for the federal government’s participation. According to charity transparency disclosures, CCAGW is the lobbying arm of the nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste, which has received donations in recent years from organizations such as the Bradley Foundation, ExxonMobil, and Johnson & Johnson.
A 30-second commercial released with Fox News Digital shows the organization pushing viewers to persuade their Republican senators not to support PBM reform by explicitly tying them to Sanders.
“Bernie Sanders is back, this time with a radical plan to give the government more control over your pharmacy benefits.” Worse, some Republicans favor it,” a voiceover continues.
“Sanders’ socialist agenda is more than simply an assault on your health-care coverage. It’s his next move toward government-run health care, destroying your pharmacy benefits, raising prescription prices, and jeopardizing private health insurance. Call [Alabama Republican Sen.] Katie Britt and encourage her to reject Bernie’s radical takeover of health care.”
Sanders’s plan would require PBMs to disclose their pricing and prohibit techniques that he claims unjustly raise prescription costs. PBM advocates argue that this would make it difficult for them to negotiate the types of discounts that these intermediaries can now get.
The bill is part of a larger healthcare plan that the Senate is slated to consider this month.
“Sanders’ socialist agenda is more than simply an assault on your health-care coverage. It’s his next move toward government-run health care, destroying your pharmacy benefits, raising prescription prices, and jeopardizing private health insurance. Call [Alabama Republican Sen.] Katie Britt and encourage her to reject Bernie’s radical takeover of health care.”
“Big Pharma and Big Insurance have rigged our prescription drug market, and patients are paying the price.” Americans foot the tab for the world’s most expensive prescription medicine costs, while intermediaries strike secret arrangements to take cash bribes that push prices further higher and prohibit lower-cost alternatives,” he stated in April.
Meanwhile, in a May 2021 op-ed in the Washington Times, Tuberville stated, “PBMs claim they help patients by negotiating lower prices from drug manufacturers.” However, PBMs seldom, if ever, pass on such savings to patients.”
