Corporate power wins over the will of the people for pharmacy access as the voices of the people in an entire state go unheard.
Recording Of Legislators Pleading For Patients' Access To Pharmacies
Louisiana is showing us the massive corporate power that we are standing against.
Corporate chains are closing many pharmacies, including their own retail brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Many of the closures have been in already underserved rural and urban areas. They're also using their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) that oversee their competitor's reimbursements and the covered list of pharmacies to attempt to steer or force more patients to mail order. In this case the PBM is CVS Caremark.
Recently, the office of group benefits which oversees insurance for state employees, had legislators vote on a contract that would essentially force or steer patients to either CVS mail order pharmacies or to CVS retail pharmacies. Some communities do not even have a CVS pharmacy nearby. All democrats and republican legislators refused to support the contract.
Even with a 144 to 0 vote against passing the contract, the state commissioner moved forward. Legislators asked the commissioner why he would move forward without the support of the legislators.
Why even have the legislators vote if the commissioner wouldn’t honor the vote of every legislator that represented every single person in Louisiana?
The commissioner’s response was that the office just wanted the representatives to be informed.
Regardless, we know that in Louisiana, corporations are being heard over the will of the people. The legislators even asked CVS to come to the table to work out an agreement. CVS refused.
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Representative: There are two pharmacies in Cottonport, Louisiana. Both pharmacies will not be able to fill state employees' medicines there so the people in Cottonport, Louisiana, will not have a local pharmacy participating. Did you know that?
Chief Executive Officer: I'm not aware of that.
Representative: You should know that it's your job to know.
Chief Executive Officer: Well it's my job to know the adequacy across the state
Representative: Especially when you're tying those people to a contract for three years
Chief Executive Officer: I'm aware that some people will have difficulty.
Representative: Some of those people may be in wheelchairs. Some might be diabetic. Some might be cancer patients. Some might have COVID who knows what chronic illnesses, and they're not gonna have a pharmacy in their area yeah that's important to know, and that's just one that's in my district. That's just one place, so Cottonport is in my district. That's just one little town. Imagine how many others there are across the state.
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The truth is that some patients may not experience difficulty when they cannot access medications. Some patients may suffer. Some patients may die.
America needs to fight back for its access to health care. We cannot allow for such an injustice. When the voice of every person in a state is suppressed and corporations don't even feel the need to come to negotiate with that level of pressure, we're in trouble. These corporations are now among the wealthiest in our nation as they've merged with insurance companies, medical clinics, and pharmacies.
Speak to your legislators and the Federal Trade Commission. For advocates and those in Louisiana, the chief executive's office number is 225-342-9670.
Additionally, I will host our first Facebook Live event to discuss related news, issues patients are having, and solutions.
This will be hosted on our Issues With Mail Order Pharmacy Page on 1/22/2023 at 3 PM CST 4 EST.
I appreciate your support,
Loretta Boesing