U.S. Congress and Health Policy

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D‑Mass.) and Josh Hawley (R‑Mo.) are introducing a bipartisan bill to 'break up Big Medicine' by barring large health-care conglomerates from owning multiple links in the care and drug‑payment chain, CBS News reports. The legislation targets firms like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health that simultaneously control insurance plans, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), physician practices and retail pharmacies, arguing this vertical integration lets them manipulate prices, steer patients to their own subsidiaries and squeeze independent providers. Modeled on a 'Glass‑Steagall for health care,' the bill would prohibit a parent company from owning both a PBM or insurer and a medical provider or management services organization, and from combining wholesale drug or device distribution with ownership of providers, and it empowers the FTC, HHS and Justice Department to sue violators and impose financial penalties. Warren and Hawley cite KFF data showing three PBMs—Optum Rx, CVS Caremark and Express Scripts—now process nearly 80% of U.S. prescription claims and are all owned by companies that also run insurers and provider networks. Industry executives have previously defended this model as efficient and consumer‑friendly, but the move reflects growing bipartisan anger over consolidation’s role in high premiums, drug prices and the collapse of independent pharmacies and doctors’ offices.