Thread by @BethWaldron

🚨EXPOSED🚨
$CVS manager admits: “I don’t give a f*ck about this G-D job”.
PBMs determine WHICH drugs we can access, WHERE & their COST. Imagine being a patient forced to obtain critical medications only from this pharmacy.🧵1/
(Warning: video contains offensive language.)

For patients, the video's less-than-professional pharmacy environment simply reflects a final indignity faced when acquiring prescription drugs & vaccinations. There's often not the consumer freedom to go elsewhere. This MUST change as vertical corp integration rises. 2/

Corporations like CVS Health have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, not to patients. They can per federal regulatory blessing steer patients to patronize other businesses they own & to formulary drugs w/ the highest profit margin they get kickbacks on from pharma. /3

Example: These premium paying patients are presented with the 'choice' by their middleman PBM to either pay FULL PRICE for drugs at their current pharmacy or get their medications at lower cost with a pharmacy the PBM parent-corporation also owns. Not really a 'choice' is it? 4/

CVS Health closed a $10 billion deal for Oak Street Health & plans to open 50 senior clinics within CVS pharmacies in 2024. Will Medicare Advantage patients now be similarly steered w/ the 'choice' to receive their health care at pharmacy environments as seen in the video? 5/

I know well how we are failing vulnerable citizens absent strong consumer protections. I & 150,000 stable heart patients were non-medically forced by CVS Health off our long-time anticoagulant despite 16 nonprofits calling it dangerous. Harms occurred.6/ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rt…

I've offered my testimony to Congress, yet so far only PBM execs have spoken there; no patients. I 'have the receipts' from the Eliquis PBM formulary fiasco. Our experience needs to be heard & strong patient protections enacted to prevent future PBM harms from happening. 7/

Public health now relies upon for-profit corporations for immunizations, medications & increasingly primary care. Just 3 corporations control 80%+ of drug access. Why is this monopolized sector allowed to party off patient profits without greater consumer protections in place? 8/

We’re told our expectations are too high:
👉Too high to expect to affordably get the drug our doctor prescribes?
👉Too high to expect stability on our existing treatments?
👉Too high to be able to go to a pharmacy of our choice?
Common sense consumer protections needed.9/

It is time for action to protect patients. I call upon every candidate this year to take a position: Where do you stand on this issue of prescription drug consumer freedom? 10/
@realDonaldTrump @NikkiHaley @RonDeSantis @RobertKennedyJr @JoeBiden @VivekGRamaswamy @AsaHutchinson

Calling upon Congress, @WhiteHouse & @FTC for not just continued talk, but concrete ACTION to protect patients. Thank you. 11/ @GOPHELP @HELPCmteDems @GOPoversight @BernieSanders @SenBillCassidy @RepMarkPocan @linakhanFTC @BedoyaFTC @POTUS @RepKatiePorter @RonWyden @MikeCrapo