Sen. Warren and Sen. Hawley Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Force Big Insurance Companies to Sell Their Pharmacies
The PBM Act is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It was recently sent to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary for review. The bill is actively moving forward as it waits for the committee to discuss it.
While the bill has support from both parties, it faces massive opposition from the powerful insurance and pharmaceutical industries that would be forced to sell off major parts of their business.
This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.
Scores run from -100 (strongly harmful) to +100 (strongly beneficial) for each group, combining impact, certainty, scope, and duration ratings of 1-5. How impact scoring works
Independent pharmacy owners are among the biggest beneficiaries of this bill. They have been squeezed by PBMs that steer patients toward their own affiliated pharmacies and force small pharmacies into unfavorable contracts. Breaking the vertical integration would level the playing field and could reverse the trend of thousands of independent pharmacy closures.
“Pharmacy benefit managers increasingly leverage their market power to pressure smaller, unaffiliated, independent pharmacies to enter into unfavorable contracts with the largest pharmacy benefit managers. This dynamic has likely contributed to the closure of more than 7,000 pharmacies between 2019 and 2024.”
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.
Introduced in Senate
The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the Patients Before Monopolies (PBM) Act, which would force conglomerates that include a PBM to divest pharmacies they own. The bill aims to end the conflict of interest where PBMs steer patients to their own stores and inflate drug costs.
The legislation would require any company that owns both a PBM and a retail pharmacy to divest from the latter. Primary co-sponsors Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley argue the current system rewards middlemen while driving up costs and pushing out independent pharmacies.
The PBM Act, reintroduced on May 13, 2026, prohibits joint ownership of PBM entities and pharmacies. It requires divestiture within one year and empowers the FTC and DOJ to enforce the law, including disgorgement of profits for noncompliance.
No votes recorded for this bill yet.
Document Type
Congressional Bill
Official Title
PBM Act
Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.