The Louisiana Pharmacy Benefit Manager Monitoring Advisory Council met last month with an unusual guest — one who came with a clear conflict of interest.
Dr. Alex Oshmyansky, founder and CEO of the Mark Cuban-backed Cost Plus Drug Company, was invited to brief the council on PBMs. But his company directly competes with them. No PBM representatives were invited to speak or respond. What could have been an informed policy discussion turned into an unbalanced promotional session for a single competitor — and that does not serve patients.
Pharmacy benefit managers have long been in Mark Cuban’s crosshairs. He claims PBMs create “an inefficient market” and lack transparency. Those complaints underpin his partnership with Oshmyansky to form Cost Plus Drug Company, a business designed to bypass PBMs entirely.
If Louisiana’s leaders want real reform, they must start by restoring fairness — and remembering who the system exists to serve.
At the hearing, Oshmyansky presented his company’s views on PBMs without challenge or rebuttal. The absence of PBM voices left the council with a distorted view of the system it’s supposed to oversee.
That imbalance creates two serious problems.
First, it deprives the council of a complete understanding of how PBMs work — what services they provide, how they negotiate lower drug prices, and how Louisiana’s new PBM regulations are already being implemented. Without hearing from the industry itself, policymakers risk forming conclusions based on partial information and advocacy, not evidence.
Second, when public bodies accept one-sided testimony, patients lose. PBMs manage drug coverage for millions of Americans, ensuring access to affordable medicines and stable pharmacy networks. When their perspective is ignored, regulations may raise costs, reduce access, or disrupt care for the very people the state claims to protect.
The broader political context in Louisiana makes this even more troubling. Gov. Jeff Landry (R) has pushed to ban PBMs entirely — an extreme measure that would upend how prescription coverage operates in the state. Meanwhile, Attorney General Liz Murrill has sued CVS, one of the nation’s largest PBMs, for warning consumers about the potential fallout of such a ban.
These moves reveal a pattern: State leaders are treating PBMs not as partners with critical expertise but as enemies. That approach replaces policymaking with politics and undermines public confidence in fair regulation.
RELATED: The maligned and misunderstood player that Big Pharma wants gone
The PBM industry isn’t above reform. Greater transparency and accountability are necessary. But good policy starts with balance. The council should convene a second meeting — this time with PBM representatives at the table alongside Cost Plus Drug Company. The proceedings should be public and transparent.
Patients deserve policies based on facts, not billionaire-backed bias. Regulation shaped by evidence, not resentment, is how states protect health, affordability, and trust.
If Louisiana’s leaders want real reform, they must start by restoring fairness — and remembering who the system exists to serve.
Democrat lawmakers have rejected Republican attempts to keep the government open amid a looming shutdown, demanding an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller slammed Democrats for refusing to support a "clean, routine government funding bill because it doesn't give free healthcare to illegals."
'The approximately $66.4 billion in federal expenditures attributable to illegal aliens is staggering, and constitutes an increase of 45 percent since 2017.'
Neera Tanden, the former domestic policy adviser under the Biden administration, accused Miller of pushing a "total and complete fabrication."
"This is a lie. It is a violation of law for the ACA premium tax credits to go to illegal aliens," Tanden wrote in a post on X.
ACA's eligibility standards require an individual to be a U.S. citizen or a lawfully present noncitizen, which can include asylum-seekers, refugees, and those granted employment authorization. The Biden administration relaxed criteria for various categories of immigration status, allowing more foreign nationals who were previously considered unlawfully present to qualify for status that may be eligible for ACA tax credits.
Additionally, multiple studies have uncovered that federal tax dollars do reach illegal aliens through the health care system.
The Congressional Budget Office found in October 2024 that the Biden administration had cost state and federal taxpayers $16.2 billion to cover Medicaid emergency services for illegal aliens since taking office.
Paul Winfree, president and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center, told Fox News Digital in March that California has been "exploiting an existing loophole within law" to use billions of dollars in reimbursements from the federal government to provide illegal immigrants with Medicaid.
"Medicaid spending is supposed to be jointly financed by the federal government and states. However, states are increasingly designing Medicaid money-laundering schemes that result in massive federal expenditures without any state financial obligation," an EPIC report claimed. "The state of California, colluding with insurance companies who cover Medicaid beneficiaries, has created one of the most outrageous ones yet, a money-laundering scheme that results in California obtaining more than $19 billion in federal money without any state contribution over the period from April 2023 through December 2026."
California's Department of Healthcare Services claimed EPIC’s report was “misleading.”
A 2023 study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform found $66.4 billion in federal expenditures on illegal aliens, including $23.1 billion in medical spending.
"The approximately $66.4 billion in federal expenditures attributable to illegal aliens is staggering and constitutes an increase of 45 percent since 2017. This amounts to roughly $3,187 per illegal alien, per year," FAIR reported.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
The political hill that Democrats are dying on would lock in expanded Obamacare subsidies, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
The American medical establishment ignored the science on Covid, abortion, and transgenderism. They have no credibility to criticize RFK Jr.
'It’s just proof that they do not even know what is in their own bill that they shut down the government over,' Minarik said.
Contrary to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claim, most of the Obamacare subsidies are not expiring, for good or for ill.
To state what should be obvious but isn’t to most members of Congress, an Obamacare bailout wouldn’t make anything more 'affordable.'
In a social media post last week, President Trump noted that what Democrats are demanding in exchange for their cooperation in reopening government would require more than $1 trillion in spending and “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors.” Indeed, taxpayers are already funding such surgeries via Obamacare subsidies — and Democrats have shut […]
If Democrats were to succeed in their funding proposal, parolees -- still illegal aliens in any common-sense understanding -- would gain access to federal health care benefits.
www.theblaze.com
www.theblaze.com