The Patriot Post® · Walgreens and Rite Aid Team Up

Walgreens and Rite Aid, the first and third largest drugstore chains in the country, respectively, are joining forces — the latest mega health care consolidation ushered in by ObamaCare. The merger has a cash value of $9.41 billion, according to the Associated Press, with a total evaluation of $17.2 billion. It’s become an all too familiar theme. From insurance companies and drug stores to hospitals and doctors groups, ObamaCare is causing all kinds of consolidation. During the financial crisis — what was really a crisis of the government’s own making — the banking industry was deemed “too big to fail.” The health industry is on the same course. Interestingly, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released today “finds that the affordability of prescription drugs continues to be at the top of the public’s priority list for the President and Congress, with ‘making sure that high-cost drugs are affordable to those who need them’ and ‘government action to lower prescription drug prices’ picked as top priorities by majorities across political parties.” Totalitarian government fiat is bending the cost curve the wrong direction. The health and drug industries risk becoming monopolies, which will adversely affect the medical options of all Americans.