With the era of mandatory mail-order and chain pharmacy takeovers, it has been the goal of my wife Laura and I to keep independent pharmacies alive in rural and out-state Minnesota. Like Dr. Nate Chandler here in Grand Marais, we have several junior partners and young pharmacists preparing to become future independent owners when they are ready. However, these dreams might come to an end if the proposed merger between Express Scripts and Medco is allowed to happen.
If this merger—the largest merger in history—is approved, it will create a new company that would control 41% of all prescriptions and about 60% of all mail-order prescriptions in the U.S.
If this merger is approved, the combined company will dominate the market, allowing it to squeeze the health care system to increase its profits at the expense of patients, who will have fewer choices of community pharmacies. Those in rural areas will have to travel further to fill their prescriptions and some may even have to resort to mail-order prescriptions. Costs may rise, including those for seniors and others on fixed incomes. Patient care would be diluted when the trusted pharmacist-patient relationship is threatened.
At Arrowhead Pharmacy, we aim to build our business around providing patient-focused services. We want to make sure that our customers and all Minnesotans, especially those in rural areas, know how this will negatively impact their ability to access the personal services they have relied on.
Like you, we are depending on our congressional leaders, especially our U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, to step up and protect Minnesota’s health care and oppose this merger.
Minnesotans’ health, businesses, and patients in rural areas depend on it.
Mike and Laura Schwartzwald,
Pharmacists
Grand Marais
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