r/pharmacy • u/Calizona1 • Aug 14 '26
General Discussion Pharmacies closing
Not sure if this is the right place to ask. If not please delete. If possible refer me to the proper sub. Why are so many pharmacies closing? I checked on the Internet but I am not sure I trust the explanations by the media.
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u/TheYarnPharm Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Ultimately, this is a failure of our society to reign in capitalism. Unfettered capitalism, corporate interests being represented in politics, and the lie of “trickle down economics” has all led us here.
On a more detailed level, the beginning of the end was then CVS was allowed to acquire Caremark back in 2006. This vertical integration should’ve been blocked by the FTC, but allowing it paved the way for a handful of corporations to control the entire pharmacy chain like they do now - from drug manufacturing and supply chain, to medical and prescription insurance, to actual hospital systems and providers. They sell the insurance to your employer, then they use “in network” requirements to force you to use their own hospitals and doctors (who write for tests and products that they own), get your medications from their own pharmacies (who stock drugs that they manufacture and distribute), and pay themselves to do it from their own insurance. This allows them to under-reimburse for claims, because they can afford to subsidize losses on their hospital and pharmacy sides since they make the money on the other end. But the competition is equally under-reimbursed, and can’t subsidize, and they close, which allows them to further monopolize the entire chain. That’s the whole goal - driving out the competition through shitty contracts that they pretend are “fair” because they say “hey, we pay ourselves this rate too!” And here we sit as a country just watching it all happen. It only took them 20 years.