This is the Cato Daily podcast for Friday, March 21st, 2025.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Pharmacists are trained to do a lot more than their day-to-day work would typically entail.

Alicia Plemons, research fellow in the Knee Regulatory Research Center, says more states need to look closely at letting pharmacists

use their training more fully to help patients.

You and I are sprightly young people, but I have come to understand through older relatives

and friends that your pharmacist does a lot for you,

especially when you have multiple physicians, as many old people do, and you have multiple

prescriptions that maybe they don't agree with one another.

Your pharmacist is there to help you navigate a lot of that.

And people, I think, don't really fully appreciate that particular element of the value that pharmacists provide.

That's a great point. I'm a big fan of pharmacist. Every single day in the U.S., there are

thousands of lives saved because a pharmacist intervened on different types of medications

that would have not worked for this particular patient that may have had inappropriate drug

interactions. They're the ones who know your medication best at the end of the day, and it's what

their graduate training is focused on. So one policy that I'm very passionate about that I've seen working around lately that has

been adopted by Idaho, but also Montana and has bills up in about 12 different states right now

is allowing pharmacists to make more of these decisions when it comes to medication

and being able to provide medication when you're not able to see a provider.

For example, Idaho changed it so that pharmacists are able to prescribe medications for 20 different types of ailments. The two that I really care about are the ability for when someone

is out of their prescription for an inhaler or they're out of their prescription for a diabetic pen needle

or an insulin pin needle, being able to get those resources without having to go to the emergency room.

...