Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban isn’t letting the absurdity of America’s health care costs go away — especially when a scan costs more than some used cars.
Cuban reignited his health care reform movement on Saturday by highlighting what he sees as glaring pricing failures. “Explain to me why an insurance company would pay $2,500 for an MRI when there’s a center down the street that pays $350?” he wrote on X.
This problem is not random. This comes as Cuban has already vented about the outsized influence of pharmacy benefit managers and large insurance companies.
Don’t miss:
“I fully support PBM reform,” he wrote earlier in the day. “But realize that the largest PBMs belong to the largest insurance companies…They are too big to care…employers, patients, states, hospitals, doctors — if they can charge you, they will.”
At this point, one user countered that insurance companies only pay the bills submitted by providers, not the ones who set the sky-high prices. Cuban’s response – his NMR rhetorical question – cut through the complexity with a blunt price comparison.
The message is clear: When insurance companies benefit from a bloated system, they have no incentive to control costs. For Cuban, this is not only inefficient, but exploitative.
“They don’t need to do this,” Cuban added in a follow-up. “That’s the point. They raised the price.”
Trending: Americans with a financial plan can quadruple their wealth — Get your personalized plan from a CFP professional
Others were quick to chime in with real-world examples. One person said their MRI quote, including insurance, was over $1,500, but paid cash for just $275. Another person said their scan cost between $1,200 and $3,200 (with insurance), but it was only $212 at a local imaging center.
Cuban, co-founder of low-cost pharmacy platform Cost Plus Drugs, has spent the past few years attacking middlemen and opacity in the health care system. His strategy focuses on eliminating layers of bureaucracy that drive up prices but fail to create value. That same frustration is now directed at insurance companies, which, in his view, continue to reward inflated fees rather than guiding patients toward affordable alternatives.
He has also been outspoken in urging Congress to force PBMs and insurance companies to give up overlapping interests, calling for greater transparency and consumer influence.
