The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee convened Wednesday in Washington for a hearing on PBMs. Credit: House Energy and Commerce
Something strange happened in a hearing room on Capitol Hill Wednesday: Republican and Democratic members of the House sometimes seemed to actually understand each other. They even spoke to each other with warmth and some compassion.
All of this occured during a House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing on pharmacy benefit managers, with some of the most conservative Republicans in the House present to support PBM regulation bills.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, one of the more liberal House Democrats, looked at her Republican colleagues and talked about how "in the political environment that we're in right now, it's just a tremendous glimmer of hope that people can find areas where we can agree."
"PBMs are a perfect example," she said. "Should this legislation come to the floor, you have my vote."
Related: Benefits group CEO stumps for PBM bills at House hearing
From the perspective of the PBMs, the lawmakers have a hazy, unrealistic idea of what it takes for a PBM to negotiate with a giant pharmaceutical manufacturer for lower prescription drug prices.
And while some of the bipartisanship at the hearing might have been the result of the work of independent pharmacists and their lobbyists, the relatively civil mood at the hearing also benefited from the fact that everyone present had been a patient. Everyone present knew what it felt like to spend a fortune on a drug that might turn out to cost just $4 per bottle at Walmart.
The impact of basic human understanding on the tone of the hearing raises the question: Why can't we do more to promote a little general understanding about what insurance funds are up against, including the improvement of basic financial literacy and education?
What's out there: Many states now require high schools to provide personal finance classes.
Elementary schools create virtual cities and have students take turns running stores, postal services and even banks.
Coaching firms offer employers programs that use improv comedy exercises, role-playing games, or professionally designed team-building activities to teach workers empathy.
What could be out there: If insurers could get more people to "play insurance company" or "health plan administrator," more people would understand why insurers prefer to avoid taking on bad risks and why they're tough on questionable claims.
Insurers could:
- Ask states to include virtual life insurance, health insurance and auto insurance companies in grade school virtual city programs.
- Sponsor the creation of online insurance company games and encourage high schools to build the games into their personal finance classes.
- Use offers of free access to Banacek insurance detective show episodes to tempt grownups in the House and the Senate, and the lawmakers' aides, to briefly back away from SimCity to instead play HealthPlanCity.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
