Senators Warren, Hawley introduce bipartisan bill that would force insurers, pharmacies to sell off PBMs

Duaine

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Hell has not frozen over, and death and taxes still exist, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have joined to introduce a pharmacy benefit manager control legislation, the Patients Before Monopolies Act bill.

The bill also has bipartisan support in the House, with Reps. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., and Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., introducing the legislation in that chamber.

The bill would prohibit any person from owning a pharmacy and an insurance company at the same time or from owning a pharmacy benefit manager and a pharmacy at the same time.

The top targets of the bill are Cigna's Express Scripts business, CVS Health's Caremark and and UnitedHealth's OptumRx.

https://www.benefitspro.com/2024/12...5fb5dbdc728b23d759e55fc18460862605a7487083e0a
 
I'm sure Hawley means well, but Elizabeth Warren is a moron that just wants to see a path to universal healthcare. She will do whatever it takes to sabotage insurance, just like the rest of the commies.

All this is gonna do is raise prices throughout the insurance sector. People still haven't quite got it through their thick skulls that health insurance is BARELY profitable. Most money goes to paying claims and operating costs. Profit-taking is HEAVILY restricted by government, by law, already. Profit is only about 2.7%.

Insurers are not charities, and they're not gonna keep operating if they are losing money on a certain line of insurance. I know the commies on the left are foaming at the mouth with joy after reading that, because they have no clue how insurance works, or business, or life, or much of anything for that matter.

But insurers are the only ones that can generate the kind of insane money it takes to pay your insanely large hospital bills. Take insurers out and you're left with a third world level of care with super long wait times, substandard doctors, doctor shortages, hospital shortages, etc.

There's already proof of how that works with Medicaid, which is the closest thing to universal care...and it's absolute trash.

I know everyone loves to hate insurers, and yes, they are certainly not without fault. Some execs are trash, and others are actually very decent people. Just like any other field in life that involves humans. Each company and person is very different.

Love them or hate them, if you want to keep this 1st world standard that we take for granted, we need them. But people are entitled nowadays, most are low IQ, and they appreciate nothing and take everything for granted.

Do I want to see a world where insurers are controlling insurance, doctors offices, pharmacies, etc? No. So again, I know they mean well. But I also understand why insurers are doing this integrated care model.....because health insurance really isn't that profitable.

Government needs to allow them to start taking more of a profit, if they're going to dismantle the integrated care model. This is just a fact. Focus on working WITH insurers....sitting down at the table, hearing them out, etc. Do not just ram policy down their throats, which is the commie left's way of doing business. Sadly, that's what this is.
 
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I'm sure Hawley means well, but Elizabeth Warren is a moron that just wants to see a path to universal healthcare. She will do whatever it takes to sabotage insurance, just like the rest of the commies.

All this is gonna do is raise prices throughout the insurance sector. People still haven't quite got it through their thick skulls that health insurance is BARELY profitable. Most money goes to paying claims and operating costs. Profit-taking is HEAVILY restricted by government, by law, already. Profit is only about 2.7%.

Insurers are not charities, and they're not gonna keep operating if they are losing money on a certain line of insurance. I know the commies on the left are foaming at the mouth with joy after reading that, because they have no clue how insurance works, or business, or life, or much of anything for that matter.

But insurers are the only ones that can generate the kind of insane money it takes to pay your insanely large hospital bills. Take insurers out and you're left with a third world level of care with super long wait times, substandard doctors, doctor shortages, hospital shortages, etc.

There's already proof of how that works with Medicaid, which is the closest thing to universal care...and it's absolute trash.
Except when you live in a state without medicaid expansion then you'd rather have crap care than no care at all. Then you have a problem getting health care if you don't make enough for ACA and your state didn't expand medicaid. If you have no insurance you have nothing except ER care (which doesn't work, for example, for chemo or following you for anything that needs followed like chronic conditions) and whatever free clinics you can find. If you have no health insurance many places require you to pre-pay the cost of expensive of the visit (and the poverty programs most systems have that they are required to have if they accept medicare only reduces the cost, and doesn't make it free). If you are lucky you can get care in a system who still lets you get the care without doing that and then doesn't cut off care (from the entire system except the ER) or sue you after they send you to collection and you don't pay.
 
Except when you live in a state without medicaid expansion then you'd rather have crap care than no care at all. Then you have a problem getting health care if you don't make enough for ACA and your state didn't expand medicaid. If you have no insurance you have nothing except ER care (which doesn't work, for example, for chemo or following you for anything that needs followed like chronic conditions) and whatever free clinics you can find. If you have no health insurance many places require you to pre-pay the cost of expensive of the visit (and the poverty programs most systems have that they are required to have if they accept medicare only reduces the cost, and doesn't make it free). If you are lucky you can get care in a system who still lets you get the care without doing that and then doesn't cut off care (from the entire system except the ER) or sue you after they send you to collection and you don't pay.

I understand.....and I genuinely mean no disrespect, but that's a separate issue to what I'm addressing. Your comment does play into a point that I made though, so it's still relevant....

This is what happens when the federal government forces policy down the throats of different entities....whether they be states or insurers. That's what Obamacare did.

They just said "Oh, we're gonna do this Obamacare thing, and you're gonna now take on an insane amount of costs for a sizable demographic of people." And some states just said....."No...not happening."

Those of us that know and understand the fraud of Obamacare just don't want anything to do with it.

Obamacare should allow those people in states that didn't expand Medicaid to receive federal subsidies to buy private plans from insurance companies, but the Democrats refused because they want as many people as possible on "free" government insurance.

Obamacare was never meant to work for private insurers.

It was meant to siphon people onto government-Medicaid and get them used to supposed "free" care, while frustrating most of the rest of the people that have exchange plans by giving them terrible benefits and high costs so that they clamor for universal healthcare. It was a sham from the beginning.
 
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All health care stocks crashing hard . CVS ,Unh and elevance down 20-40% off their highs . Obviously the spot light of the murder has hurt them but also this news of having to sell their very profitable Pbm business . The question for the agent in 2025. With massive potential margin squeeze coming to the insurance industry in 2025 and beyond. There's no doubt insurers will have to pay a Higher % of claims going forward as the spotlight on denials . I got no doubt agent commissions and overrides will be under the microscope
 
All health care stocks crashing hard . CVS ,Unh and elevance down 20-40% off their highs . Obviously the spot light of the murder has hurt them but also this news of having to sell their very profitable Pbm business . The question for the agent in 2025. With massive potential margin squeeze coming to the insurance industry in 2025 and beyond. There's no doubt insurers will have to pay a Higher % of claims going forward as the spotlight on denials . I got no doubt agent commissions and overrides will be under the microscope

If Trump wasn't getting in, I'd say it's pretty much the death march of health insurance offered by private companies, as they aren't gonna offer something at a loss. They'll just pull out of all markets completely and say "good luck!" But I know his regime will never allow that to happen.

I know everyone online is all emotional, and again, some insurers are far from perfect, but people don't understand the immense negative implications the fallout of this is gonna have on their lives if they continue this very emotion-driven attack on insurers.

People need to stop listening to the army of extremist commie leftists of "sHe/HeR/HeRs" with blue hair and bull-nose-rings. These are children in adult bodies that don't understand anything.

Logical adults need to start using some discernment and common sense in examining this. These people just want free shit at all costs.

This is why I hate social media. The idiots are the loudest and they are consistent in their attacks. Are some fixes needed? Yes, but people need to be careful not getting too extreme with those fixes.

Healthcare is 1/5th of our economy, and all these entities rely on the huge payments that only insurance companies can generate. This is not a time for illogical emotions.

Healthcare costs over 6 trillion dollars every single year, and most people don't pay taxes. So unless people want to start getting taxed up to their eyeballs, calm and logic needs to return to the table.
 
Don't forget that the companies were the biggest supporters of Obamacare. All they could see were dollar signs from all the new blood coming in.

Oh well ..... What goes around comes around.

Could you blame them, though? Who wouldn't want more business? Plus, Obamacare was sold as the next coming of Christ, based upon all the lies from the Democrat-controlled government at that time.

"If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." LIE. "Everyone will have low cost insurance." LIE. And then you have drunk Nancy with the classic Idiocracy line that summed up all of Obamacare....."We have to pass the bill to see what's in it." 🙃

Now you've got people clamoring for more "help" from the people that destroyed insurance. Classic "problem, reaction, solution." Create the problem, generate outrage/opposition, and finally present your "solution." A classic scam.
 
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