Have Lawmakers Found A Back Door To Extending Their Covid Tyranny?A drug price transparency bill making its way through the Senate fails to protect against authorities accessing patient medical records.
March 30, 2023
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy
The Federalist
Recent rumblings in the Senate regarding drug pricing “transparency” have many Americans puzzled. On one hand, who could possibly oppose transparency? Surely we all support efforts to promote candor and accountability in our health-care system. And yet, knowing as we do the tendency of bureaucrats and politicians to use euphemisms to mask more sinister motives, we owe it to ourselves to dig deeper.
At issue is a proposed law, S.127, the “PBM Transparency Act.” On the face of it, this bill purports to impose greater oversight and stricter reporting requirements on obscure entities in our medical system known as “pharmacy benefit managers,” or PBMs for short. PBMs offer their services to Medicare, health insurance companies, unions, and businesses big and small, negotiating with the wholesalers of prescription drugs in order to lower prices. By one estimate, PBMs save the average American around $1,000 per year. ...
It turns out, however, that the stakes might be a lot higher. That’s because provisions in the bill seem to authorize the Federal Trade Commission, the Government Accountability Office, and potentially state attorneys general
to access medical records and information in unprecedented ways. ...
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