Mark Cuban calls health care prices “horrible” and says hospitals and doctors are “subprime lenders,” but proposes a way to fix things
Mark Cuban doesn’t hold back when it comes to his thoughts on the American healthcare system. On Bluesky on December 10, he explained exactly why he thinks the system is broken and how he is taking steps to fix it.
Your biggest complaint? Hospitals and doctors are forced into the role of “subprime lenders” because they assume 100% of the credit risk for unpaid deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. “That’s crazy,” he wrote, adding, “When they can’t collect payment, they raise prices to make up for that loss.” According to him, this leads to “horrible” prices in healthcare.
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The domino effects don’t end there. According to Cuban, hospitals have to function as mortgage loan servicers, wading through a maze of administrative costs to collect those unpaid amounts. This cycle pushes many patients into medical debt, often leading to bankruptcy. In Cuban’s eyes, this is not only inefficient: it is a humanitarian disaster.
Insurance companies are not getting a free pass in their criticism either. Cuba claims that for more than 50 million Americans under such plans, insurers do not offer traditional insurance. Instead, they function as “care authorizers and payment processors,” determining the approval and cost of care, with a primary focus on preventing fraud and assessing medical necessity.
Data from Statista indicates that in 2023, approximately 65% of American workers were enrolled in self-funded health insurance plans, where employers take direct financial responsibility for employees’ medical claims.
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Cuban does not believe this role should fall to insurers at all. “That authorization process is one that we should not ask of the INS comps,” he argued. Instead, he believes independent third-party administrators (TPAs) without financial incentives to approve or deny care should handle this process. “The first step,” he said, “is for self-insured entities to use third-party TPAs and move away from insurance companies for this service.”