To the Editor:
Brooklyn Pharmacy has served SE Portland since 1897—surviving three ownership changes, two relocations and accumulating more than 125 years of neighborhood trust. Today, we are fighting for survival, along with independent pharmacies across Oregon.
The threat is clear: Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), powerful and largely unregulated middlemen, are driving up drug costs, forcing unfair contracts on pharmacies and steering patients to corporate mail-order operations. Their practices have created a crisis: pharmacies are closing, services are being cut and communities are losing access to care. Since 2008 over 200 Oregon pharmacies have closed and this April, four more are closing or announced their intention to do so. We urgently need the Legislature to act—this session—before it’s too late for other pharmacies.
At Brooklyn Pharmacy, we offer immunizations, compounding, direct RPh access via phone/in person and even a comfort K9 (Hal) to provide superior pharmacy care that mail order cannot provide. We’re being pushed to the brink, often losing money on prescriptions because PBM reimbursements don’t cover our costs. This is unsustainable.
I’ve worked with Senator Wyden but Congress hasn’t acted. Now, we need Salem to step up. Representative Rob Nosse—my State Representative and Chair of the House Health Care Committee in Salem—has seen this crisis firsthand and is sponsoring HB 3212—a bill that would finally rein in PBM abuses and help level the playing field.
No surprise: PBMs and their insurance allies are working hard to kill this bill, while more pharmacies close, and their own profits soar. If HB 3212 fails, more communities will lose their pharmacies, and patients will lose access to care—it’s that simple.
Please email Representative Rob Nosse—Rep.RobNosse@oregonlegislature.gov—and urge him to stand up to corporate pressure and pass HB 3212. Thank you so much.
Pat Hubbell, RPh/Owner, Brooklyn Pharmacy
Editor’s note: Letters to the Editor are to be less than 300 words. The Southeast Examiner reserves the right to edit for length or content.