Sarah Huckabee Sanders has done something right.
Not only has she done something right, in signing a bill that bans Pharmacy Benefit Managers from owning pharmacies, she is the first in the nation to do this.
Governor Sanders had to choose between Big Pharma and ordinary folks, and she went with ordinary folks.
Good news, not not what I expected:
Arkansas became the first state in the nation to prevent healthcare conglomerates from operating drugstores here when Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed House Bill 1150 on Wednesday.
State law already regulates what pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) pay to reimburse independent pharmacies, but pharmacists have complained that the companies violate the law. The state has also fined four PBMs a total of $1.47 million for paying Arkansas pharmacies below the legally required amount for prescription drugs.
PBMs negotiate prescription benefits among drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies and health insurance providers, and the biggest ones also own pharmacies and insurers. The Federal Trade Commission released an interim report in July 2024 saying these conglomerates are eliminating competition and increasing drug prices at the expense of patients.
HB 1150 headed to Sanders’ desk April 9 after clearing the Senate with a bipartisan 26 votes, six days after it passed the House with 89 votes. The bill generated hours of discussion and public comment in the House and Senate committees on Insurance and Commerce this month.
“These massive corporations are attacking our state because we will be the first in the country to hold them accountable for their anticompetitive actions,” Sanders said in a statement Wednesday.
This is probably the most aggressive anti-monopoly action taken by a Republican of national stature since ……… (Checks Notes) Teddy Roosevelt? (Maybe Nixon, or William Howard Taft, but definitely a long f%$#ing time ago)
It's welcome news, but this is profoundly weird.for this to have come from Governor "Smokey Eye".
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