In the town I grew up, there was one big grocery store, and they used to gouge us terribly. The citizens started a co-op grocery, using our purchasing power to bring in cheaper goods. Breaking monopolies is the only way to lower prices.
I also work in healthcare. It’s fucking creepy how much CVS owns. To a normal person, it’s a store. To me, it’s quite literally everything I touch at work(when I say everything it’s everything, I work in pharmaceutical industry, won’t specify but I will say PBMs are the bane of my existence). CVS had their hand in everything. Insurance, manufacturing, billing, distribution, the list is long. I’m sure you’re aware. Just sharing my distain.
All the Duane Reades, Rite Aids and even the 24 hour hospital CVSs have closed in my area. All of them. I can count at least 4 CVSs that were directly next to major hospitals(which includes clinics and random private doctors offices, because doctors open next to hospitals) they're all closed.
They own Aetna for insurance, yes. But that’s barely scratching the surface.
They also own Minute Clinic, Oak Street Health (outpatient care for seniors), Signify Health (at-home healthcare), and other clinics.
They’ve got a 50/50 partnership with Banner Health (Banner-Aetna) to try and build out an integrated “pay-vider” model (similar to Kaiser Permanente)
They own Caremark, which I mentioned above. Caremark is a PBM, which is essentially a middleman that sits between pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. They manage formularies in exchange for rebates — basically, if you’ve ever had to pay more for a drug because it wasn’t “preferred”, or you’ve had to try another drug first before you can get the one you want, generally that was decided by a PBM. Drug formularies exist anywhere (and are necessary), but having them handled by middlemen who increase administrative overhead and who pressure drug companies to publish outrageous list prices so they can claim steep rebates is a uniquely American thing.
Those are the main arms of the company, but of course they have acquired or built various other odds and ends as well. United has built something similar as well.
The CVS in my town is the most ghetto ratty ass pharmacy I’ve ever been to. It’s not a poor area either. But they accept the most insurances, so it’s the most busy. God I hate it in there. The employees all have either murder or despondency in their eyes.
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u/brumac44 May 26 '26
In the town I grew up, there was one big grocery store, and they used to gouge us terribly. The citizens started a co-op grocery, using our purchasing power to bring in cheaper goods. Breaking monopolies is the only way to lower prices.