Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban is once again calling out the U.S. healthcare system, taking particular aim at insurance companies and high-deductible health plans.
In a series of posts on X, Cuban said what many Americans have felt firsthand: that health insurance often doesn't work for the people who need it most. “Insurance companies love high deductible plans,” he wrote recently. “When you can't afford your deductible, you don't get care. Which means no money from the carrier.”
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Cuban Calls For System-Wide Change
Cuban warned that while “catastrophic” plans with $10,000 deductibles may offer lower premiums, they ultimately benefit insurers more than patients. “The deductible is so high, you are just telling the insurance carriers that your premiums are free money,” he wrote. “They won't have to pay out.”
Back in February, Cuban called deductibles “the biggest problem in healthcare,” criticizing a system that leaves hospitals and doctors chasing payments. “Often we choose higher deductibles because we are healthy or because we can only afford the lowest premium plan,” he wrote. The result, he said, is that providers are forced to act as “bill collectors,” even though they had no role in designing the plans patients choose.
“That is one f****d up system that needs to be redesigned,” Cuban added.
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Additionally, in another recent post, Cuban called the Affordable Care Act “garbage today,” blaming politicians for allowing corporations to manipulate a 15-year-old law. He argued the ACA has been exploited by big insurance companies that now dominate the system and make life harder for small, independent providers.
“Talking to independent physicians, it’s obvious that the big insurance carriers are doing to them what their [pharmacy benefit managers] are doing to independent pharmacies,” Cuban wrote. “They deny, underpay, slow pay, clawback, and create administrative mazes, knowing their victims don’t have the time or resources to push back.”
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Cuban emphasized that this isn't just a case of inefficiency, but a power imbalance. He has also described the current setup as a “scam” that punishes those who can’t afford to meet their deductibles. “This is not an efficient market,” he said. “This is the big guy abusing the little guy. It needs to change to better the care we get in this country.”
He said while extending ACA premium subsidies for another year might help in the short term, it's time for bigger reforms. “Now is the time to replace it and redo healthcare.”
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