Republicans and Democrats find a unifying target: Pharmacy benefit managers

Amye and Charlie Joseph of Elizabethton, Tenn., are on opposite sides politically, but have a shared disdain for pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs. Earl Neikirk/KFF Health News hide caption

Amye Joseph says America's political polarization has made it an "interesting time" in her Tennessee household.

She and her husband, Charlie, have been married for 35 years. She's a Republican. He's a Democrat. But their shared disenchantment with profit-driven healthcare has provided a unifying target: pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs.

This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News .

The Josephs' frustration is focused on CVS Health. The conglomerate, which reported $400 billion in revenue last year, includes a major health insurer (Aetna), one of the country's dominant PBMs (CVS Caremark), and America's largest retail pharmacy chain (CVS Pharmacy).

"We hate CVS. I'm going to be straight-up," Amye Joseph said.

She laments the lack of face-to-face interaction with pharmacists, prices that seem to rise without explanation, and pressure from the couple's CVS Caremark drug plan to use CVS stores instead of their local pharmacy.

"They're not even a middleman," she said. "They're a money grab for CVS."