Jess McAllen

3 weeks ago | thebaffler.com | Jess McAllen |Athena Sofides |Sydney Calkin |Abe Beame

Cole Schmidtknecht was among the hundreds of workers employed by Kriete Truck Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The twenty-two-year-old, along with 54 percent of Americans, had health insurance through his job: Kriete Truck Center contracted with UnitedHealthcare and its pharmacy benefit manager, OptumRx. Like other PBMs, OptumRx works with insurers and large employers to manage their prescription drug benefits. This arrangement had worked well for Schmidtknecht up until January of last year.