In this week's Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU Public Media, Steve Brown and Ann Fisher discuss the large profits made by middlemen through managing pharmacy benefits for the state's Medicaid program.
Listen to Snollygoster on the WOSU Public Media mobile app, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And make sure to leave a rating and review!
In this week's episode:
Man in the Middle
A report commissioned by Ohio Medicaid showed the spread between what the state paid the PBMs, or pharmacy benefit managers, and what they paid pharmacies added up to $224 million last year. A court battle continues over the release of that report, which the PBMs say contains trade secrets.
Meanwhile, Ohio Medicaid is telling its five managed care plans to sever their contracts with two pharmacy benefits managers and to work up new deals by the beginning of the year.
12th District Race Finally (Probably) Over For Now
This week, Democrat Danny O'Connor's campaign said they only expect an additional 3,000 ballots to count when the state certifies the results next week. Even if O’Connor won 75 percent of the outstanding votes, it wouldn’t be enough to win against Republican Troy Balderson.
John Kasich GPS
Our governor caught the ire of President Trump, who called him a very unpopular governor who hurt Troy Balderson’s win by tamping down Republican enthusiasm. Kasich's response made headlines.
The very unpopular Governor of Ohio (and failed presidential candidate) @JohnKasich hurt Troy Balderson’s recent win by tamping down enthusiasm for an otherwise great candidate. Even Kasich’s Lt. Governor lost Gov. race because of his unpopularity. Credit to Troy on the BIG WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018
