The Conflicted Interests of Pharmacy Benefit Managers

A group of lawmakers have introduced legislation that would break up health care conglomerates, aiming to rein in the power of pharmacy benefit managers. We’ll explain what PBMs do and why all sides of the health care industry are pointing fingers at one another over high costs. And, we’ll get into how the future of the Trump-era tax cuts could impact the federal deficit and why General Motors is ditching its robotaxi business. Plus, now’s your chance to talk with an AI Santa Claus.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Yellen Talks Russia Sanctions, Tariffs and Deficit” from Bloomberg via YouTube
• “Yellen says Trump’s tariffs could derail US inflation progress, raise costs” from Reuters
• “Senators Warren and Hawley introduce a bipartisan bill to break up pharmacy-benefit managers” from CNBC via YouTube
• “Elizabeth Warren, Josh Hawley Co-Sponsor Bill to Break Up Giant Health Care Conglomerates” from The New York Times
• “What is a pharmacy benefit manager, anyway?” from Marketplace
• “GM to stop funding troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit, abandoning robotaxis” from CBS San Francisco
• “GM to Shut Down Its Cruise Robotaxi Project” from The New York Times
• “OpenAI introduces ‘Santa Mode’ to ChatGPT for ho-ho-ho voice chats” from Ars Technica

Tomorrow is our last episode of the year! Join us for our annual holiday party on “Economics on Tap.” The YouTube livestream starts at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern.