Businessman Mark Cuban makes it “mission” to shake American health care.
Cuban is known to own the Dallas Mavericks and for his role as providential investor in the reality show ABC “Shark Tank”.
He did not move away from the political arena as the eminent critic of President Trump. But Cuban says it has no interest in presenting itself to a higher office, rather opting to disrupt health care.
“If I could change health care in this country, it would be incredible,” said Cuban in an interview for The “Summit of Health following” of the hill.
For Cuban, it starts with his Cost Plus Drugs company, which was launched in 2022 with the aim of pharmacies that jump for intermediate wholesalers.
“I am not saying that I will be able to achieve it, but I know that we had a significant impact with costplusdrugs.com, and I think we get there and we focus on this and the simple to change the lives of people for the best on the side of health care, it is my mission,” he said.
Cuban said that the company proceeds more than 2,500 drugs and that when customers type the name of a drug, they immediately see its real cost followed by the increase, which is still 15%. The businessman said that business transparency was what distinguishes him from his competitors, notably Amazon Prime, Costco and Goodrx.
“As crazy as it may seem, we are the only company to publish their price list,” he said.
However, Cuban said that Cost Plus Drugs met the road dam for pharmacy services, also known as PBMS. It is the intermediaries that manage the coverage of drugs for companies of American PBMs and manufacturers of brand medicines negotiate discounts in the form of discounts, and the PBM then transmits most of the discounts to employers.
Critics argue that PBMs do not always find the best offers and force independent pharmacies to leave business by not paying them enough to cover their costs. The PBM industry, on the other hand, said that PBMS saves employers and patients in medication costs.
“When we talk to the manufacturers and we say, look, why cannot we get the same discount programs as these major PBMs, they tell us without telling us that they do not want to lose their position on the form, which represents hundreds of millions or billions of dollars,” said Cuban.
“The big PBMS won’t let them take care of us. This is our problem. End of history,” he added.
But Cuban said that he and his team are progressing slowly by going to the CEOs of drug manufacturers and working with PBMs of Passe-time, which eliminate discounts, discounts and costs directly to the payer.
“All the discounts have passed so that you really get significant savings, and slowly but surely we have breakthroughs,” he said.
Cuban also praises the company’s partnership with independent pharmacies by paying them filling costs of $ 12 per prescription, by fully repaying the pharmacy and allowing them to make a profit.
“I want independent pharmacies to remain in business,” said Cuban. “I think that as a country, we do not want to see the deserts of the pharmacy. We need it to stay in business. All these people, elderly people who have been going to the same pharmacist for decades and that the pharmacist knows them, they know their families, it is important. It saves lives. “
“The problem is that the biggest PBMS will not repay fully,” he said.
Cuban argued that the cost and drugs could considerably reduce the cost of brand medicines if the pharmaceutical industry allows the company to participate in discount programs.
“The amount of money that we can save taxpayers and patients will be, to paraphrase, as you have never seen before. Most of the history of history,” he said, seeming to imitate Trump.
Cuban said he hoped that the Trump administration will work to reduce prices through centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS). However, he added that he thought that the Republicans were afraid of working with him, in particular those of the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government (DOGE).
Cuban describes the approach From the Trump administration and the head Doge Elon Musk like “Ready, Fire, Aim”, which, he added, “is not a way to govern”.
“In particular when you know what, you know, descending on communities and cities the size of the small to means where suddenly, who knows how many people lose jobs, who knows how many companies must close, because their subsidies have been reduced and who knows the impact on this community in terms of services that they will be able to offer, to do taxes,” he said.
Cuban is one of Trump’s most frank criticism from the business community, and he chose to campaign with the president of the time, Kamala Harris, last year.
Cuban said that he does not particularly care about the future of the Democratic Party because of his independence status. However, he encouraged Democrats to enter the communities to get an idea of how Trump’s prices and cups take place locally.
“You are not going to bring people suddenly to turn Donald Trump, but what you can do, as we have seen with some of the town halls is to bring people to light some of the republican members of the room who will have to make a really difficult choice,” he said.
“If their communities are negatively impacted by the all-at-one cuts and the impact of prices, put pressure on these republicans of the house to make a choice. Either you support Donald Trump, or you go against Donald Trump and say these prices and these cuts are horrible for my city, or you lose your job, “he said.
Updated on March 27 at 5:55 a.m.
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