Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project today launched a new initiative, Break Up Big Medicine, to unite the millions of people across the country who are fed up with the power that consolidated healthcare conglomerates, private equity, and middlemen wield over our access to quality and affordable care—and push policymakers to end structural conflicts of interest across the industry.

“The Break Up Big Medicine community is for all those harmed by healthcare corporations’ relentless quest for profit and those ready to push policymakers to finally end the structural conflicts of interest at the center of this industry,” said Emma Freer, Senior Policy Analyst for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project. “These corporations’ insatiable greed is pulling doctors away from patient care (sometimes from the literal operating table), forcing nurses to work in unsafe conditions, jacking up the price of life-saving medications, driving independent medical practices and pharmacies out of business, and crushing employers and other health plan sponsors, which pay for rising premiums by cutting workers’ wages. It’s time to break up these behemoths before they kill more of us.”

Break Up Big Medicine will serve as a hub for patients, healthcare small business owners and workers, advocates, and policymakers to learn more about the fight to end structural conflicts of interest in healthcare, build power as a community, and exert political pressure on policymakers to take action to end conflicts of interest in healthcare.

The launch was coupled with a virtual rally featuring Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA-04), FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya, along with patients, healthcare industry business owners and workers, who shared personal experiences with Big Medicine, recounted heartbreaking stories about the costs of corporate consolidation in healthcare, and emphatically pushed to break up these corporate giants and put power back in the hands of physicians and patients.

Policymakers and Enforcers

“The overarching goal for us in Congress is take out the rent seekers of course, whether they’re health insurance companies or pharmacy benefit managers, try to implement a Glass-Steagall for healthcare…but at a deeper level, stop letting the health insurance companies convince lawmakers that just giving them more money through subsidies is going to deliver value-based care to patients,” said Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA-04). “Instead, go to the actual providers—the pharmacists, the nurses, the doctors, the diagnosticians—and see what they need to practice medicine according to their oath, because they want to.”

“These allegations are so serious. A kid not getting cancer medication, someone not getting their insulin medication — this could not be more serious,” said FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya. “For me personally right now at the FTC, there’s nothing more important than getting to the bottom of what’s happening in this industry.”

“That PBM study was voted 5-0,” added Commissioner Bedoya. “Every Republican and Democrat voted to move that forward, and I think that bipartisanship underscores how, whatever you think of politics, this is an obvious area where our country is hurting and we need to get it right.”

“[Big Medicine] believes that physician-directed healthcare is a failed experiment,” said Oregon State Representative Ben Bowman (D-25). “That is the choice we have — we either have physicians in charge of our medical care or are going to allow corporate profit make decisions about what happens in an exam room. I’m grateful to be with you to stand up and fight for physician independence.”

Doctors & Pharmacists:

“I ask myself, am I one of the pharmacies that are going to be closed today? Are you going to walk up to the pharmacy tomorrow to get your medication and there’s a big sign their closed because of these PBMs,” said Dr. Emlah Tubuo, Powell Pharmacy. “We need to break up Big Medicine — we cannot sit in a backroom and complain. We need to break up Big Medicine for the sake of our ourselves and our families.”

“When you are felled with a disease that you did not ask for, you had no idea was coming down pike and you couldn’t plan for, and now you’re told it’s just not covered and what your doctor wants for you doesn’t matter. That’s a suit practicing medicine, it’s not allowing the scrubs to practice medicine,” said Dr. Marion Mass, free2care. “It’s not personal care, it’s not what the patients want, and it happens because of all of this consolidation that we’re talking about. It’s past time to break up Big Medicine.”

“For physicians that want to spend their career taking care of their patients, they spend so much of their time doing coding and documentation — and the incentives aren’t aligned with delivering better patient care, having better availability, having any insider transparency into what costs will look to patients,” said Dr. Nick Jones, Clear Health Direct Primary Care.

“When there is a physician shortage, we need to advocate for a healthcare system that supports independent medical practices that are owned and operated by physicians rather than publicly traded corporations where that fiduciary responsibility puts profits over patients,” added Dr. Jones. “I’m a big advocate for breaking up Big Medicine.” 

Patient Advocates & Small Businessowners: 

“We must start putting patients first, ensuring that every patient can afford and access the medications they need as prescribed by their doctor and not dictated by their insurer or PBM,” said Jenna Riemenschneider, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. “It is past time that we break up Big Medicine.” 

“Ultimately, we must reform PBMs, break up Big Medicine, demand transparency, fair pricing, and put patients over profits” said Bil Schmidtknecht, PatientProtector.us. “I lost my son to this broken system, but as we start missions like this together, we can make sure that other families don’t have to endure the pain that my wife and I have endured. Today is the day we start the mission to break up Big Medicine.”

“There are so many business owners across the U.S. who fear a major medical incident will push them to the brink [of close or bankruptcy],” said Shayai Lucero, New Mexico Small Business Owner. “It is time to break up Big Medicine to support small business owners and the communities they serve.”

Healthcare Policy Experts: 

“The same public policy that has gotten us into this mess can get us out of this mess,” said Hayden Rooke-Ley, Senior Fellow for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project. “That can only happen if we can build the organization, if we can build the power, if we can share our stories, if we can come together to collectively exert our own pressure on the political system and demand of policymakers that we build a system that is actually oriented around clinicians, and their patients, and their own communities — and not a system that is organized around the profits of our country’s largest healthcare corporations.”

“The problem is that our need for medicines is a matter of life or death,” said Antonio Ciaccia, 46brooklyn Research. “Every layer of the prescription drug channel—manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacies, PBMs, GPOs, and a bevy of other players—are all comprised of publicly traded companies whose fiduciary obligations are to make more money today than yesterday. As vertical integration across the drug channel grows the conflicts of interest in the supply chain, there is a greater need for government payers, employers, and patients to have better transparency, better system alignment, and fair rules of play so that access to medicines is both robust, efficient, and most importantly, in keeping with the public health needs of every American.”

Learn more about Break Up Big Medicine here.

Watch the full event here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.