December 11, 2024

Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Plot to Force Health Insurers to Sell Off Pharmacies

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are set to introduce legislation to break up pharmacy-benefit managers, the drug middlemen that have now faced yearslong scrutiny from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission.

A Senate bill, sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), would force the companies that own health insurers or pharmacy-benefit managers to divest their pharmacy businesses within three years.

A companion bill, which sponsors say draws on a history of government prohibitions on joint ownership within industries, was also scheduled to be introduced in the House on Wednesday.

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Read the full story here.


By:  Liz Essley Whyte and Joseph Walker
Source: Wall Street Journal