|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Across Alabama, our businesses and residents are grappling with the rising cost of everyday goods and the cost of health care, particularly the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs.
As a business owner in the state, I depend on our lawmakers to pass sound, market-driven legislation that will empower the economic engines of our state’s diverse economy. This includes measures to reduce financial strains on Alabama businesses and their employees.
When it comes to providing quality health care coverage to employees, one avenue business owners like me use to help keep health care costs in check — namely prescription drug costs — is through pharmacy benefit managers, PBMs. We hire them to negotiate lower prescription drug costs for our health benefit plan, securing savings for my employees, their families, and my business. The savings secured through PBMs’ negotiating power allow me to both provide affordable coverage to my employees while operating a more efficient business.
Unfortunately, our state lawmakers are considering a bill that will increase out-of-pocket health care costs for more than two and a half million Alabama patients who rely on their employer for their health insurance. This is serious threat not just to Alabama’s business environment, but to the health of Alabaman employees and families.
In a misguided attempt to address a leading contributor of high prescription drug costs, the Alabama legislature would undermine savings in the private market and exacerbate the challenges of affordability across the board for Alabama businesses, their employees and family members enrolled in their employee-sponsored health plans. An analysis of this policy found it would cause premiums for Alabama patients to increase by more than $383 million in the first year alone.
The bill undermines pay-for-performance incentives and market forces in health care that produce savings for hardworking families. These incentives encourage PBMs to deliver the highest-quality pharmaceutical care, increasing patient satisfaction.
You do not have to be a business owner or an economist to know this is a bad policy. Taking away an incentive to secure lower costs inevitably leads to higher costs.
There are countless individuals who struggle to afford health care. Our representatives should not be attacking the one actor within the supply chain that actually helps alleviate financial burdens on patients and business owners by securing savings on prescription drugs. Instead, our representatives should redirect their focus on the main contributor behind high prescription drug costs: Big Pharma.
Unsurprisingly, Big Pharma is the force pushing for this bill’s passage in our state. They are not concerned about Alabama’s businesses and employees spending more on prescription drugs, they just want to make sure to boost their profits if this legislation passes.
PBMs handle the bulk of administrative tasks related to managing prescription drug benefits, which is extremely beneficial for companies with small staff numbers. Like many other smaller companies with limited resources, we could not successfully handle the administrative burden of negotiating for cheaper prescription drugs ourselves.
Without a PBM, my business would struggle with less negotiating power and be forced to face Big Pharma alone. This will lead to higher prescription drug prices, lower-quality care, and reduced access to health care for my hardworking employees who deserve better. And the same applies to other businesses like mine.
If this policy is implemented, it will result in diminished competition and flexibility in the private market, making it more challenging for Alabama businesses to offer high-quality, affordable health care plans to their employees. This makes it harder to both attract and retain employees, impacting any business’ ability to grow and succeed.
The proposed changes to PBMs will place an unnecessary financial strain on Alabama’s businesses and families. I hope that our state lawmakers stay committed to doing what is best for Alabama businesses and their employees by rejecting the Big Pharma-backed money grab in Senate Bill 252.
