Who wants you to pay more for prescription drugs? Some in Congress

One of the major problems with healthcare policy (as well as policy in general) is that too many representatives support giving government more power to solve government-created problems. For example, Representative Buddy Carter (GA-01). Rep. Carter has recently been attacking Pharmacy Benefit Mangers (PBM).

PBMs negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and are often successful in lowering prices for their clients — which can include Medicare prescription drug plans. PBMs are far from perfect — but the way to address their shortcomings is to take further steps to create a free-market in pharmaceuticals, not to impose new regulations on PBMs.

At a time when Medicare is forced to draw from its reserve funds to cover current benefits, and Medicare trustees are predicting that the Medicare trust fund will be bankrupt by 2026, it is odd — to say the least — that a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative like Rep. Carter would attack a proven way of saving money.

Hopefully, Rep. Carter and others in Congress can be persuaded by their constituents to stop problems caused by government intervention in the health care market with more interventions that will create new problems. Instead of imposing more regulations on PBMs, Rep. Carter should focus on expanding access to Health Savings Accounts and other vehicles to put individuals back in charge of the healthcare dollar — and thus back in charge of healthcare. If you live in Rep. Carter’s district, please call him at 202-225-5831 and tell him to stop trying to fix government-created problems with government solutions and start working to restore a free-market in healthcare.