Mark Cuban Floats Bold Healthcare Plan: 'Zero Premiums To Insurance Companies' With A Cash-Pay Revolution

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has proposed a bold plan to revolutionize the U.S. healthcare system, eliminating traditional insurance premiums and introducing transparent pricing.

What Happened: Cuban’s recent proposal, posted on social media platform X, comes amid growing frustration with insurance clawbacks and escalating costs, spotlighted by a viral video from an American surgeon exposing insurer malpractices.

Cuban's plan allows patients to select cash-pay providers who disclose prices upfront. "I would allow patients to pick whatever cash pay provider that honors their published price," he wrote, proposing that patients pay what they can afford, with taxpayers covering the rest.

Repayments would be deducted from paychecks, capped at 10%, with unpaid debt forgiven after 15 years. "There would be zero premiums to insurance companies," he added, replacing them with a $400–500 monthly family re-insurance fee, capping annual expenses at $50,000.

The proposal also targets Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), aiming to eliminate their role in drug pricing. "No PBMs. No health care from employers," Cuban stated, drawing on his success with Cost Plus Drugs, which has slashed prescription costs by up to 80% since 2022.

Medicare and Medicaid would adopt net pricing for medications, enhancing affordability.

Why It Matters: Cuban has been a critic of the insurance sector for quite some time. In a recent appearance at the Stanford University Department of Medicine, he laid out exactly how he thinks insurance companies are rigging the system.

He argues that insurers manipulate plans annually, prioritizing low premiums while subtly increasing out-of-pocket costs. This steers patients toward seemingly affordable high-deductible plans that prove disastrous during illness.

"Depending on what's going on in the economy, those patients, particularly as they skew a little younger or a little poorer, take low-premium, high-deductible plans," Cuban said. "Which is good for the insurance companies. You know who it's not good for? You guys."

By "you guys," Cuban meant the doctors and hospitals who end up taking on the financial risk. If a patient can’t pay the deductible, the insurer has already gotten its money, but the provider hasn’t. "And you also take on the brand and reputational risk… Did you cause the problem? No,” Cuban added.

Price Action: Here’s how insurance companies’ linked exchange-traded funds have been performing this year. These ETFs outperformed the S&P 500 and the S&P Insurance Select Industry indices, which have risen by 2.80% and 3.84% on a year-to-date basis, respectively.

ETFs	YTD Performance	One Year Performance
SPDR S&P Insurance ETF KIE	3.92%	17.36%
iShares US Insurance ETF IAK	5.42%	17.52%
Invesco KBW Property & Casualty Insurance ETF KBWP	6.25%	19.38%

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF QQQ, which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, fell in premarket on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.53% at $599.51, while the QQQ declined 0.56% to $531.30, according to Benzinga Pro data.