Letters: Pharmacy benefit managers

Colorado families are confronting some of the highest health care costs in years. A big part of this is prescription costs, and the common thread running through nearly every complaint is the influence of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). These middlemen control formularies and collect massive rebates from manufacturers that never reach the patients they’re supposedly negotiating for.

If Congress is serious about lowering drug prices, the most direct path is passing PBM reform before the end of the year. The PBM Reform Act introduces more transparency into a system that has operated in the shadows for decades and finally breaks the financial incentives that reward PBMs for driving drug prices higher.

Unlike so many proposals in Washington, PBM reform is straightforward, bipartisan, and f