Coalition Against Socialized Medicine Statement on FTC Findings of Anti-Competitive PBM Practices

ALEXANDRIA, VA, July 12, 2024 –

This statement is attributable to Andrew Langer, CPAC’s Executive Director of the Coalition Against Socialized Medicine:

“The old saying ‘a broken clock is right twice a day’ rings true amid recent reports that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans to sue the three largest PBMs for their prescription drug pricing practices. This comes after the FTC released a damning report documenting the anti-competitive tactics PBMs employ to steer patients toward affiliate pharmacies and run independent pharmacies out of business.

Now that the FTC has exposed PBMs as a driver of high drug prices, Congress must act. With federal statutes and regulations covering nearly every aspect of healthcare in America, House and Senate hearings are necessary. Legislative reforms will be critical to bring competition back to our healthcare system. And Big Health Insurers should have to divest themselves of wholly owned PBMs.

Americans cannot afford a healthcare system where these PBMs are allowed to ‘negotiate discounts’ on drugs—and then pocket the ‘savings’ for themselves rather than passing them along to the patients for which they were intended. Time is of the essence here. Every day that political leaders fail to act in fixing the PBM crisis is another day that America’s working families are held hostage to a system that forces them to pay more for essential drugs than a truly competitive marketplace would allow.”

The Coalition Against Socialized Medicine (CASM) is a broad coalition of leading conservative groups including the Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC), Heritage Action, the National Taxpayers Union, Club for Growth, Citizens Against Government Waste, American Commitment, and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.