The Fray: Schumer, NY House members protest potential Medicare cuts to NY hospitals

Originally published in Times Herald-Record

A bill passed by state lawmakers in Albany in the final days of the legislative session last month echoed the findings of an investigation by a committee led by Sen. James Skoufis into the opaque practices of pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen in the prescription-drug industry.

“Every single day in this state, someone is forced to choose between buying medication that they need and buying groceries for the week,” Skoufis, a Woodbury Democrat and chairman of the committee, said in a statement then. “This is an atrocity and a failure of government oversight. Price hiking has plagued consumers for decades and we are currently at a point where it has gotten out of control.”