Mark Cuban, owner of Cost Plus Drugs and a longtime critic of the pharmaceutical industry, is speaking out in support of the congressional Break Up Big Medicine Act.
“I don’t think people realize how much health care costs are driving big companies to fire and not hire,” he wrote in a social media post. “It costs them $30K per family, per year, for premiums and care. Most of that goes to the massive, vertically integrated insurance companies that send weekly bills that no one reviews in detail.”
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The bipartisan legislation was introduced earlier this year by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. If enacted, it would prohibit companies from owning both a health insurer or pharmacy benefit manager and a medical provider or management services organization. Companies in violation would have to comply within one year of the bill’s enactment. In addition, the parent company of a prescription drug or medical device wholesaler would be prohibited from owning a medical provider or management services organization. The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The nation’s three largest PBMs manage 80% of prescription drug claims, while just three prescription drug wholesalers control 98% of U.S. distribution, according to the bill’s sponsors.
“These corporate entities are vertically integrated, meaning one company can own or control every part of the health care supply chain, from health insurance companies and PBMs to pharmacists and physicians,” they said. “By controlling both the company that pays for health care services and also the entity that sets the prices for those health care services, these conglomerates may be steering business to their own affiliates, evading laws intended to rein in corporate profiteering or using providers they employ to boost government payments and pad their bottom lines.”
Cuban encouraged Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has advocated Medicare for all, to get behind the legislation.
“And the concept of ‘every other country does it’ ignores the fact that they all converted decades and decades ago, long before you and your peers allowed the extreme vertical integration we face now,” he posted. “Which leads to the question: @BernieSanders, why have you not advocated for the Break Up Big Medicine Bill?”
Cuban believes the legislation would make health care more affordable and benefit the overall economy.
“Want to increase jobs, wages and improve affordability for every American?” he wrote in a separate post. “Break up the biggest insurance companies. Make them divest non-insurance companies. They don’t need thousands of subsidiaries. That’s how they game and abuse the system and increase costs for all of us.”
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