Mark Cuban Asks Why Insurance Pays $2,500 for an MRI When a Center Down the Street Charges $350

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban isn't letting the absurdity of America's healthcare costs slide—not erstwhile a scan tin outgo much than immoderate utilized cars.

On Saturday, Cuban reignited his crusade for healthcare betterment by highlighting what helium sees arsenic a glaring pricing failure. "Explain to maine wherefore the security institution volition wage $2500 for an MRI erstwhile determination is simply a halfway down the thoroughfare that volition bash it for $350?" helium wrote connected X.

The question wasn't random. It came during a thread wherever Cuban had already been venting astir pharmacy payment managers and the oversized power of large security companies.

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"I'm each for PBM reform," helium wrote earlier successful the day. "But recognize that the biggest PBMs are owned by the biggest security companies… They are TOO BIG TO CARE… Employer, patient, state, hospital, physician—if they tin complaint you, they will."

That's erstwhile a idiosyncratic pushed back, arguing that insurers simply wage the bills submitted by providers and aren't the ones mounting sky-high prices. Cuban's response—his rhetorical MRI question—cut done the complexity with a blunt terms comparison.

The connection was clear: security companies person nary inducement to power costs erstwhile they payment from a bloated system. And to Cuban, it's not conscionable inefficient—it's exploitative.

"They aren't required to be," Cuban added successful a follow-up. "And that is the point. They summation prices."

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Others rapidly chimed successful with real-world examples. One said their MRI was quoted astatine implicit $1,500 with security but outgo conscionable $275 erstwhile paid successful cash. Another said their scan was listed betwixt $1,200 and $3,200 with insurance—but lone $212 astatine a section imaging center.

Cuban, who co-founded low-cost pharmacy level Cost Plus Drugs, has spent the past fewer years attacking middlemen and opacity successful the healthcare system. His strategy has focused connected cutting retired layers of bureaucracy that pad prices without delivering value. That aforesaid vexation is present squarely aimed astatine insurers who, successful his view, proceed to reward inflated charges alternatively than steer patients toward affordable alternatives.

He's besides been vocal astir pushing Congress to unit PBMs and insurers to divest their overlapping interests, calling for greater transparency and much user leverage.