Lawmakers Plot to Force Health Insurers to Sell Off Pharmacies
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation to break up pharmacy-benefit managers, the drug middlemen that have now faced yearslong scrutiny from Congress and the Federal Trade Commission. 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 introduced in the House on Wednesday.