It’s happening because CVS has gotten out of control. Not only do they have so many stores, unlimited capacity to control supply, And PBM, kickbacks and more. CVS is able to undercut the small pharmacies by shitloads while simultaneously generating massive incomes. They are able to negotiate deals far greater for prices much lower than an independent Pharmacy sometimes due to their control of drugs. Especially when it comes to controls , cvs can basically saturate the market with orders and request and at such capacity that any independent for a hundred miles would never see that stock ever make it to them.

On the provider side of healthcare, it's a violation of federal law to refer business to another business you own. In the insurance side, the insurer can own the Pharmacy Benefit Manager, pharmacies, switching companies that gain access to all claims from competitors and no one seems to care. Does anyone not understand that if you tell insurance companies they must spend 80% of premiums collected or refund them, that they can only make more money if they drive up costs. The insurers can use PBMs they own to launder this money. They don't care if the PBM keeps costs down because they need to spend more to be able to make more. Why not spend the money by sending it to another company you own? If there isn't any monkey business going on, why do they fight transparency so much? These publicly owned companies can't actually care to lower costs because lowering costs would lower profits which would cause their share holders to run. Just think of the level of conflict of interest here. You know what transparency would do? It would actually increase competition.

united health has a really nice 90 million dollar gulfsteam private jet at osu airport

Duh, it's called BIG PHARMA. I would th ink that the Ohio AG, along with others, would figure out a way to start action against these PBM's.