Why Single Payer??

  • Rx Drug Costs have increased 159% from 2007 to 2018 (3X the rate of inflation!)1

  • Medical bankruptcies

  • Rationing drugs

    • 29% of Americans did not take their prescription as directed due to cost2

  • How can improved single payer lower drug prices?

    • Allowing price negotiation with manufacturers

      • 88% of Americans favor prescription price negotiation through Medicare2

    • 63% of Americans feel there should be more regulation of prescription drug pricing

  1. Hernandez I, et al JAMA 2020;323(9):854-862

  1. Kaiser Family Foundation Tracking Polls (https://www.kff.org/slideshow/public-opinion-on-prescription-drugs-and-their-prices/)

  • The wealthiest Americans are expected to live 10-15 years longer than the poorest Americans1

  • Substantial disparities exist in health insurance coverage based on race/ethnicity and income2

    • Compared to Whites:

      • American Indians/Alaskan Natives are 2.9X more likely to be uninsured (21.8% v 7.5%)

      • Hispanics are 2.5X more likely to be uninsured (19.0% v 7.5%)

      • Blacks are 1.5X more likely to be uninsured (11.5% v 7.5%)

    • Compared to those with income > 400% of the federal poverty line:

      • Individuals with incomes below the poverty line are 4X more likely to lack insurance coverage (17.3% vs. 4.3%)2

  • Single payer system will address these inequities by covering all persons in the US

  1. Dickman SL, et al. Lancet. 2017;389(10077):1431-1441.

  2. Artiga S, et al. Kaiser Family Foundation Issue Brief. Disparities in Health and Health Care: Five Key Questions and Answers. 2020; Artiga S, et al. Changes in Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity since the ACA, 2010-2018.

  • US has the HIGHEST per capita costs ($11,172 per person)1 but the LOWEST performance among 11 industrialized nations, ranking LAST in:2

    • Infant mortality

    • Life expectancy at age 60

    • Last in health care outcomes

    • Last in health care equity

  1. National Health Expenditure Data. CMS.gov

  2. Schneider EC, et al. Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities for Better U.S. Health Care,. The Commonwealth Fund

  • PBMs and Health insurance companies often restrict access to pharmacies via networks

  • They also steer patients towards mail order pharmacies or their own pharmacies


How does single payer affect your choice of pharmacy?

By eliminating networks, a single-payer health care system gives you the freedom to choose your pharmacy!

Pharmacists for Single Payer ally, Dr. Vibhuti Arya, is the lead and corresponding author on this paper titled "Systemic Racism: Pharmacists' role and responsibility" discussing the roles of pharmacists in addressing systemic racism. https://www.japha.org/action/showPdf?pii=S1544-3191%2820%2930458-1

Single Payer, Pharmacy, and Lessons from 2020

This video features Dr. Shannon Rotolo who presented her findings on single payer system in the first webinar hosted by Pharmacists for Single Payer. Dr. Carol Paris, Immediate Past President for Physicians for a National Health Program, was also a panelist in the Webinar

An Ongoing Issue: Drug Prices and Supplies Before and During the Pandemic

May 15, 2020


In this podcast Dr. Shannon Rotolo describes the problems with drug supplies and high drug prices before and during this pandemic.

Podcast link: https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-2egk9-dc9436

Medicare enrollment is a headache for seniors — but the whole system’s a mess

While in the short-term the suggestion to select a plan carefully is a reasonable one, we must push for long-term reform of the current system

Nov 25, 2019, 1:18pm CST


Published in "The Chicago Times" this letter to the editor breaks down a pharmacist's perspective on the struggles patients endure in the current healthcare system every month...

"Pharmacists spend much of their time communicating (or trying to communicate) with pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs: essentially middlemen that negotiate drug prices for both patients and pharmacies to determine which benefits are allotted to whom. Each health insurance company, or the PBM it works with, has its own list of medications that are covered under that plan"


Private Insurance Hurts Pharmacists, Too..

Pharmacists are an oft-overlooked group of workers made miserable by our for-profit healthcare system.

Jennifer Bernstein

MARCH 25, 2020


Published in "The Nation" this article explores the miserable conditions pharmacists go through when dealing with private insurances