ly every specialty drug. This also included steering
patients seeking highly profitable drugs to their own pharmacies with large markups. PBMs often impose opaque, performance-based fees and audits after a drug is dispensed. These can hit small pharmacies with sur-
independent pharmacies more than their own pharmacies, multiple Fed- eral Trade Commission (FTC) reports show otherwise. PBMs reimburse their own phar-
macies at better rates than outsiders. The most recent FTC report found
that the “Big 3” PBMs (CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, OptumRx) paid their pharmacies higher reimbursements than unaffiliated pharmacies on near-
prise bills, or clawbacks, that erase their profit. In practice this means a local phar-
macy may fill a prescription expecting fair reimbursement, only to have a significant portion docked later. Such arbitrary takings make it
nearly impossible for it to stay in business. Between June 2023 and June 2024, the U.S. lost 448 independent phar-
sometimes without age restrictions. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said, “You have a significant num- ber of individuals with disabilities — these are the people who need care the most — who are now afraid to go to the hospital because they have MAiD teams pressuring them to end their own lives.” According to the Canadian government, in 2023
MAiD accounted for 4.7% of all deaths, making it the sixth leading cause, surpassing Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes combined, with some estimates suggesting over 100,000 lives were lost through the program. While most American advocates of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) insist a MAiD-like system will never happen in the Unit- ed States, Dennis Poust, of the New York State Catholic Conference, warned Newsmax that steps are already in
Trump Pardons Key Aides They were pivotal in challenging 2020 election.
P
resident Donald Trump pardoned top allies,
including Rudy Giuliani, in connection with efforts to change the results of the 2020 election, said Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney. The list of pardons also included high-profile figures such as Trump’s former chief
of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Sidney Powell, as well as dozens of others. Martin said
the figures would receive a “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon.
GIULIANI
macies — a drop from 19,432 to 18,984 locations nationwide. That’s more than one pharmacy closing every day. The problem is not abstract: In
2022, Express Scripts (a PBM owned by Cigna) removed nearly 15,000 pharmacies — 27% — from its Tricare (military health) network, affecting over 400,000 active and retired ser- vice members. Express Scripts justified the deci-
sion by citing that most of the pharma- cies served small populations of Tri- care beneficiaries, despite warnings of how it would disproportionately affect rural veterans.
Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the nonprofit American Consumer Institute.
motion to normalize euthanasia, potentially surpassing Canada’s approach. “We see pressure on sick people in Canada to allow the government to end their lives, but can you imagine how much worse it will be in America, where the system is still mostly profit-driven?” said Poust. Schadenberg explained that as healthcare costs con-
tinue to increase in both Canada and the United States, patients can expect the push for PAS to grow stronger. “The Canadian universal healthcare system is mirror-
ing many of the same issues being faced in America — an aging and growing population, and the fact that you have a very expensive healthcare system that makes promises it can’t possibly keep,” he said. “Any society that kills its old and sick is a society in decline,” Schadenberg added.
Giuliani and Powell were
pivotal in efforts to pressure legislatures in key states to reject Joe Biden’s victories, while Meadows set up meetings and called Georgia oficials asking about alleged election fraud in the state after Trump’s 2020 loss.
None of those
pardoned has been charged with federal
crimes, making it a largely symbolic move. The pardon doesn’t affect charges that could be brought by state prosecutors. Shortly after arriving at the White House for his second term in January, Trump pardoned nearly all of the 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters, effectively wiping away four years of prosecutions.
DECEMBER 2025 | NEWSMAX 19
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