While the American health care system is far from perfect, moving toward socialized medicine would be a step backward for patients. While Congress works to find bipartisan consensus on lowering the cost of insulin and other medicines, self-proclaimed democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has proposed a new provision that would increase government control over the health care system, leading to rising prices for medications and health care costs.

The Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Reform Act would hinder the ability of PBMs to negotiate between insurance companies, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies, leaving patients without a critical advocate. As the system currently stands, PBMs save patients and payers more than $1,000 per person per year through a variety of methods, including rebates, audits and leveraging pharmacy networks.

By requiring pharmacies to compete on pricing, PBMs can secure lower costs and higher-quality medications for patients. Without PBMs, Big Pharma would not be held accountable for price gouging and patients would pay more out-of-pocket for prescription medications, along with higher premiums and deductibles.

Through the reduction of costs, American businesses also benefit from PBMs as the negotiated prices help to bring down the overall cost of health plans that many companies provide to their employees. This means that limiting PBM capabilities would create a ripple effect, not just hitting patients but hurting small businesses as well.

Through our current patent system, Big Pharma has stymied cheaper alternatives, such as generics and biosimilars, from coming to the market, which makes PBMs essential in negotiating lower prices on available medications.

Unfortunately, Sen. Sanders’ PBM Reform Act would complicate this process by adding more bureaucratic red tape and eliminating tools used by PBMs to negotiate and lower drug prices. Government interference would only limit the competitive nature of the industry and diminish the freedom for PBMs to lower costs at every turn.

In fact, many supporters of Sen. Sanders’ PBM Reform act have claimed the PBM industry isn’t competitive, but the PBM industry poses few barriers to entry. With more than 70 PBMs across the country, these allegations are plainly false.

Additionally, PBMs help administer plans for over 275 million Americans across the country and leverage large groups of patients to get lower prices. This is how a competitive free market works, and allowing the government to bog down the process will only drive up prices and reduce the quality for American patients.

Fortunately, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) opposed the PBM Reform Act when he voted against the measure in committee. The senator cited concerns around a ban on “spread pricing,” which is yet another tool PBMs use to reduce the overall prescription costs.

Despite Sen. Romney’s objection, the Sanders legislation passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and now could be slipped into a larger, less controversial bill that would also reduce insulin costs. This shameless effort would be bad for American patients and businesses and advance Sen. Sanders’ socialist agenda within our health care system. I hope Sen. Romney will continue to stand against this bill and protect Utah businesses and patients.

Mackey Smith is the former state chairman of the Utah Young Republicans and the current vice chair of the Salt Lake County Republican Party.

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