The Health Insurance Industry is the new Joe Isuzu #TrustMe

David Merritt, Senior Vice President at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, published an op-ed this week positioning insurers as "one of the only checks on drug pricing today." He wants Congress to focus on manufacturers. He wants you to see BCBS as your advocate. He wants the conversation to stay upstream, far away from the denial letters his member plans send to patients every single day.

Let me be clear about what is happening here. The insurance lobby is running interference. They point at Pharma while their own companies delay prior authorizations until patients give up. They talk about "securing fair prices" while employing algorithms to reject claims in bulk. They celebrate launching a $55 insulin pen while their peers at UnitedHealthcare deny a 495 pound man the only FDA approved drug for his condition because he has not tried dieting first.

Merritt brags about CivicaScript saving patients nearly $1,000 a year on a generic prostate cancer drug. That is not a win. That is an admission that someone was overcharging by $1,000 a year in the first place and the system allowed it.

The op-ed mentions "bipartisan legislation" and "targeted proposals" and "meaningful relief" without naming a single bill number. It praises Trump's executive actions without acknowledging that insurers spent decades building the denial infrastructure those actions barely touch. It frames premiums as a downstream consequence of manufacturer greed while ignoring the billions insurers spend on utilization management designed to make patients quit before they collect.

Nine in 10 voters are concerned about drug costs. What the poll does not ask is how many of those voters have been denied coverage for a drug their doctor prescribed. How many spent hours on the phone begging for an exception. How many watched a loved one deteriorate while waiting for an appeal.

BCBS wants credit for building a lifeboat while its members keep drilling holes in the ship.

Welcome to 2026: The Year of the Patient where the sick shall inherit the ballot.

SOURCE ➡️ https://www.newsweek.com/how-can-we-stop-high-drug-prices-at-the-source-opinion-11500378