Medicare and towns like Rockford, IL, rely on Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to negotiate prices down. Rockford is suing PMB Express Scripts for not advocating in the town’s best interest.
The Rockford File is the story of how one very expensive prescription drug threatened to financially cripple an entire city. That city is Rockford, Illinois, an old industrial town outside of Chicago. Rather than using a health insurance company, Rockford has, for years, paid its own health care costs for its 1,000 employees and their dependents.
When Rockford got hit with the drug bill it was so enormous the mayor at the time set out to understand why.
Larry Morrissey: Everybody’s asking the question, “Why is health care so expensive?” Because the fix is in. That’s the answer. That’s the short answer.