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For fifty years, the PBM system grew in the dark — processing trillions in drug transactions while staying invisible to the people paying the bills. Then a few unlikely fighters decided enough was enough. In the finale of our three-part PBM series, Jesse traces the rebellion that nobody saw coming: a state government that fired its PBM and saved $54 million in year one, a coalition of employers who made one radical demand — show us the math — and a billionaire who built a pharmacy from scratch just to prove what drugs actually cost. This episode is about what happens when people who understand a broken system get angry enough to do something about it. And it ends with a question that leads somewhere even darker than where we started.
By Jesse HendonFor fifty years, the PBM system grew in the dark — processing trillions in drug transactions while staying invisible to the people paying the bills. Then a few unlikely fighters decided enough was enough. In the finale of our three-part PBM series, Jesse traces the rebellion that nobody saw coming: a state government that fired its PBM and saved $54 million in year one, a coalition of employers who made one radical demand — show us the math — and a billionaire who built a pharmacy from scratch just to prove what drugs actually cost. This episode is about what happens when people who understand a broken system get angry enough to do something about it. And it ends with a question that leads somewhere even darker than where we started.