Pharmacy benefit managers like CVS are going after President Donald Trump’s allies who are seeking meaningful health care reforms for their constituents.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) have become the primary target of PBMs, which are threatened by their push to implement reforms in drug costs. Threatened by MAGA allies, PBMs have now escalated these conflicts to legal disputes.
‘These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable.’
In April, Huckabee Sanders signed legislation banning PBMs from “engaging in anticompetitive practices” by owning pharmacies. PBMs are tasked with negotiating drug prices between pharmacies and insurance companies, but by buying up pharmacies, they are able to take advantage of the health care system and inflate the cost of pharmaceuticals, pushing competitors out of business, according to Huckabee Sanders’ press release.
“For far too long, drug middlemen called PBMs have taken advantage of lax regulations to abuse customers, inflate drug prices, and cut off access to critical medications,” Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “Not any more. These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable for their anticompetitive actions, but Arkansas has never been afraid to be a conservative leader for America.”
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association promptly retaliated and filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation, calling it a “fundamentally flawed law” that they say “could shutter pharmacies, restrict access to critical medications for patients and families, increase health care costs, and eliminate jobs.”
Landry has become involved in his own legal disputes with PBMs. Landry, alongside Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, filed three separate lawsuits against CVS in June for allegedly interfering with legislation that also would have prevented PBMs from owning and simultaneously operating pharmacies.
“PBMs are not health care providers,” Landry said. “They are corporate profiteers inserted into the most intimate part of your life and your health.”
Although several of Trump’s allies have been targeted by PBMs, criticism of the pharmaceutical industry is generally bipartisan.
Mark Cuban recently called out Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for claiming that Big Pharma is responsible for high drug costs when, he says, PBMs are the real culprit.
“It’s because PBMs corrupt healthcare,” Cuban said in a post on X. “Big Pharma wishes they could set their own pricing. They don’t. PBMs control formularies and manipulate prices, in exchange for providing pharma access to patients. It’s how they maximize rebate revenue. In fact, 3 PBMs NEGOTIATE MORE THAN 90% OF REBATES for commercial insurance plans. That’s your area of expertise, and you have done nothing.”
Cuban’s criticisms promptly earned the unlikely praise of some of the most prominent voices in MAGA world.
“Didn’t think I’d be RTing Mark for a while, but he’s 100% right on this issue,” Donald Trump Jr. replied in a post on X.
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