The Reading Warehouse

High drug prices are forcing many Americans to make difficult and sometimes troubling choices such as deciding between buying the medicines they need and paying for food or other bills. Not having needed medicines can lead to serious health consequences, such as when a person with diabetes cannot buy enough of the insulin they need and becomes ill and is hospitalized. Not being able to afford other kinds of medicines can be just as devastating, even if the effects are not seen right away.

As more patients find their generic drugs unaffordable and unobtainable we risk these untreated patients suffering potentially tragic consequences.

In this book, the author starts at the pharmacy counter and digs for answers, shining a light on the opaque operations of:
-Corporate pharmacies
-Mysterious middlemen pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
-Generic drug manufacturers.
Findings include:
-Many generic drug prices surging far more than justified by their economics.
-Markedly varied prices (sometimes by hundreds of dollars) for the same generic drug depending on how and where you buy.
-More than one price for the same drug in the same store.
-Shadowy dealings in the Generic Drug Industrial Complex, including alleged collusion and price-fixing.
-Over 1 in 5 insured patients can find cheaper prices online than their insurance price.