Comment by swatcoder
3 days ago
The article is about UnitedHealth's PBM, which negotiates rates and then earns revenue from drug manufacturers through rebates. Remember that insurance is part of Big Finance and involves a lot of clever instruments to shuffle around money, risk, and accountability. PBM's are one of those instruments. Our intuitive Econ 101 models of the industry don't always go far enough into the weeds when we're just reacting to headlines. This is one of those occasions.
https://content.naic.org/insurance-topics/pharmacy-benefit-m...
For those who want to really understand the impact that PMBs play on the overall US healthcare system I highly recommend reading the "The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care--and How to Fix It" by Marty Makary, MD. The system of legalized kickbacks that they use isn't widely recognized but it will have to be reformed if we ever want to bring down prescription drug spending.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/price-we-pay-9781635575910/