How will Medicare for all and total loan forgiveness affect pharmacy?

[pharmd2017yasssss]

lower wages and pharmacist leaving the profession?

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[Lubeckd]

lower wages and pharmacist leaving the profession?

Im leaving regardless, I give it a 3-5 year lifespan for me

 

[lord999]

The same as the cure for cancer, neither will ever happen in this political environment. As for the future, can't see it being anything but lower wages and a professional arbitrage due to supply (and desperation), but that doesn't have to do with politics as much as greed.

 

[VictorOfHungerGames]

explain why this would lower wages for pharmacists and lead to pharmacists leaving profession all together?

I would think this could help the medical professions in general? this basically means PBMs will be obsolete.... may the same reason why it won't happen haha. insurance and PBMs are not gonna let this happen.

 

[Subvisual]

It's impossible to answer as multiple candidates have their own very distinctive spin on what "Medicare 4 All" actually means when implemented.

 

[PharFromNormal]

explain why this would lower wages for pharmacists and lead to pharmacists leaving profession all together?

I would think this could help the medical professions in general? this basically means PBMs will be obsolete.... may the same reason why it won't happen haha. insurance and PBMs are not gonna let this happen.

PBMs employ pharmacists. There are inherent synergies if you eliminate all PBMs and put the role a PBM plays on the government.

Now wages... In a scenario where a PBM is “obsolete” you still don’t eliminate the function that a PBM serves... it just shifts. It would go to the government. One mega PBM has a tremendously larger amount of leverage than a few big ones. On a relative basis the profit margin of the evil companies we hate is peanuts compared to total healthcare spend. The real efficiency in a single government run program (where they are the one and only agency taking the role of the PBM) is the squeeze down on reimbursement. Free stuff, no copay/deductible will only encourage utilization of healthcare resources. From what I’ve seen, theories of “but more people will use preventative care” haven’t really been proven as our society doesn’t just change engrained behaviors overnight. In efforts to keep over spending to balloon due to increased utilization the reimbursement squeeze gets stronger and it becomes take it or leave it. They take all the profits out and then they start deploying strategies to make everyone reduce their COGS, overhead and operating expenses. This means your wage/salary. There is no regulation requiring you to make any set amount. Also since there is now only one payer of pharmacy care there is no where else to go that has a better prospect. Wages start creeping down across the board. It’s inevitable. Pharmacies start closing because they can’t make a profit and pharmacists don’t want to do the same thing and get paid less so more pharmacists leave.