Mark Cuban says Kamala Harris will tackle 'criminal' healthcare pricing schemes

By Chris Matthews

The vice president has promoted transparency in drug pricing at Cuban's urging

Billionaire Mark Cuban has told Vice President Kamala Harris that one of her first priorities as president should be to require pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy-benefit managers to be more transparent about what they are charging consumers and insurance companies for drugs.

Vice President Harris "told me specifically that she likes the idea of transparency, and she sees that as a winner," Cuban told reporters at an event hosted by KFF, a nonpartisan healthcare-policy organization, in Washington on Tuesday.

Cuban has been a vocal supporter of Harris and her presidential run, and a key supporter in tech circles - where many business leaders have been frustrated by the Biden administration's skeptical view of big business and its efforts to reign in the tech sector through antitrust enforcement.

Harris publicly backed efforts to promote drug-price transparency on the campaign trail, saying at an August campaign rally that she'll "demand transparency from the middlemen who operate between Big Pharma and the insurance companies, who use opaque practices to raise your drug prices and profit off your need for medicine."

Pharmacy-benefit managers administer prescription-drug benefits on behalf of insurers, large self-insured companies and other payers. They have come under scrutiny in Congress and by the Federal Trade Commission, with some arguing that their practices drive up costs for consumers.

The top three PBMs - UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s (UNH) Optum Rx, CVS Health Corp.'s (CVS) CVS Caremark and Cigna Group's (CI) Express Scripts - processed close to 80% of all prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. last year, according to a recent FTC report.

In September, Express Scripts sued the FTC, alleging that the report was biased and defamatory against the company and asking the court to order the FTC to withdraw the report.

The report was "74 pages of unsupported innuendo leveled against Express Scripts and other PBMs," Express Scripts alleged in its complaint.

On Tuesday, Cuban argued that if the government forced PBMs and drug manufacturers to be transparent about their pricing, it could save U.S. companies and consumers "at least" $50 billion per year.

He said that the government should do more to promote such transparency, either through regulations or by crafting legislation that requires transparent pricing.

The billionaire founded the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug company in 2022 to sell generic prescription drugs though a transparent, direct-to-consumer model that cuts out the PBMs.

Cuban also criticized PBMs and insurers for certain nontransparent practices - including so-called spread pricing, where they charge consumers or self-insured companies more than they paid for a healthcare service or drug, while pocketing the difference.

"Spread pricing is just criminal," Cuban said.

Some experts disagree that going after PBMs will meaningfully lower drug prices for Americans.

Matthew Fielder, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, made that argument in study published in 2023, arguing that broader reforms are needed to make healthcare more affordable.

"While there are problems in the market for PBM services," he wrote, "they likely have modest effects on the overall affordability of prescription drugs."

-Chris Matthews

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10-08-24 1532ET

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