The Effects of Regulatory Neglect on Health Care Consumers

Testimony of David Balto Before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

SOURCE: AP/Lisa Poole

A customer approaches a CVS pharmacy in Saugus, MA, on February 18, 2009. CVS/Caremark is one of the three largest Pharmacy Benefit Managers, which is considered the only segment of the health insurance market that is unregulated by the Federal Trade Commission.

By David Balto | July 16, 2009

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CAP Action Senior Fellow David Balto testifies before the Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Read the full testimony.

Chairman Pryor, Ranking Member Wicker and other members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today and testify about health care competition and consumer protection enforcement. As a former antitrust enforcement official, I strongly believe the mission of the Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice is vital to protecting consumers and competition. However, in the past administration, the priorities of those enforcement agencies were not effectively aligned with the critical priorities in the health care market, with the result that there is substantial anticompetitive and fraudulent activity that raises prices and costs for consumers and the American taxpayer, especially conduct by certain health care intermediaries—Health Insurers, Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs, and Group Purchasing Organizations, or GPOs.

Read the full testimony. (CAP Action)