Tim Mitchell

Sen. Warren laid it out plainly: Express Scripts reportedly billed the DoD ~$484 MORE per generic drug when it filled the script at its own pharmacy. The DoD official's response? "I'm not aware of the cost." Asked why 13,000 pharmacies have walked away from TRICARE? "The contractor is meeting its contractual requirements." Let that sink in. Here's one drug — Droxidopa, 90-day supply: 💵 Cash, no insurance: $180🏪 TRICARE pays an independent: $131🏬 TRICARE pays a big chain: $2,400🏴‍☠️ Express Scripts pays ITSELF: $9,700 Same pills. Same bottle. The only thing that changes is who's pocketing the spread — and it's the middleman, every time. And they don't stop at gouging pharmacies. They gouge patients too. That same drug at an Express Scripts pharmacy? $13 copay. At your local independent? $48 — even though the independent option saves the plan over $9,000. You read that right. They charge YOU more to steer you toward the option that costs the PLAN more. Because the friction is the point. Every closed pharmacy, every inflated price, every "I'm not aware" — it all feeds the same machine. This is why we fired Express Scripts and the PBM middlemen who profit by making your healthcare worse. No PBMs. No hidden fees. Just transparent cash pricing.

The Fall of a Giant: Why Walgreens was sold for pennies on the dollar. 💊📉 How does a company with $150 BILLION in revenue and a store on every corner get sold to private equity for just $10 billion? The answer isn't just bad management—it’s a rigged healthcare system. 👇 1. The Private Equity "Strip & Flip" Last year, Sycamore Partners closed their acquisition of Walgreens and immediately began splitting it into 5 standalone companies. They aren't looking to "save" the pharmacy; they’re breaking it down to sell it for parts. But why was Walgreens so vulnerable in the first place? 2. Flying Solo in a World of Giants In the pharmacy world, Walgreens is an outlier. Look at their biggest competitors: CVS owns Aetna (Insurance). UnitedHealth owns Optum (Pharmacy Benefits Manager). Cigna owns Express Scripts. Walgreens is unaffiliated. They are flying solo, and in our current healthcare system, that means trouble. 3. The PBM Stranglehold Insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) hold all the cards. They tell patients where they have to go. If your insurance owns CVS, they’ll force you to go to CVS. If you try to go to Walgreens, they can simply deny the claim or make it prohibitively expensive. 4. The Specialty Med Monopoly The real money isn't in your $10 generic antibiotic. It’s in Specialty Medications. These make up only 2% of all prescriptions... ...but account for 50% of total spending! 💰 Insurance-owned pharmacies have crushed Walgreens here. They literally deny insurance claims at unaffiliated pharmacies, forcing patients into their own ecosystem. It’s a "captured market" strategy that leaves independent-ish giants like Walgreens in the dust. 5. The Human Cost It’s more than just corporate warfare; it’s gross. Insurance companies are essentially threatening the lives of their beneficiaries: "Come to our pharmacy, or just hope you get better without your meds." --- There is a better way. We don't need their "permission" to offer fair, transparent pricing. Stop playing their game. Do you think the government should step in to break up the vertical integration between insurance companies and pharmacies?