Mark Cuban has been speaking out loudly about what he sees as serious flaws in the U.S. healthcare system. In his view, the system is so bloated with complexity and middlemen that it distracts doctors from what they actually signed up to do: care for patients.
Cuban Says Simpler, Fairer Healthcare Would Help Everyone
“Healthcare is really a simple business,” the billionaire and co-founder of the Cost Plus Drugs online pharmacy said on the “How I Doctor” podcast in April. “You go to the doctor, hopefully the doctor says nothing's wrong. If there's a complication or some need, the doctor tells you what you need.” According to him, there are only two questions: How much will it cost, and what’s the payment plan?
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Instead, Cuban says the U.S. healthcare system has become a tangled web. “Every complication you add is an opportunity for arbitrage,” he said, criticizing the layers of complexity that allow third parties to profit while driving up costs for patients and burying doctors in paperwork.
Doctors, he said, are caught in the middle. “Let me just tell you upfront, doctors are underpaid,” Cuban said on the podcast, especially when comparing their pay to what hospitals actually bill for major procedures. “I want that motherf***er doctor to make $10,000,” he said about heart surgeons, arguing they should be focused on saving lives, not scrambling to cover bills.
One of his most memorable points? A good healthcare system would allow doctors enough breathing room to take a break. “How can we get doctors to be able to golf on Wednesdays like they used to?” he asked.
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Insurance Companies Draw Harsh Criticism
Cuban also reflected on what he sees as the root of the problem: insurance companies. “The insurance companies are the worst of the worst of the worst, of the worst of the worst,” he said on the podcast.
He criticized insurers for designing plans with high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, which often leave patients unable to pay. That burden then falls on doctors. “Even if they’re broke as a joke and don’t have two nickels to rub together, you have to still care for them,” he said. The result is that doctors eat the financial risk, not insurers.
Transparent pricing, according to Cuban, would cut out a lot of unnecessary stress. Doctors could treat patients, record notes, and move on without battling billing systems.
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Free Med School? Cuban Says It’s Worth It
Cuban has also been vocal about making medical school tuition-free to bring more talent into the field and help fix the shortage of doctors.
“There are 100k students in med school each year. Room and board is about 100k per year. For [$10B] a year, med school could be free,” Cuban posted on Bluesky in July. He’s floated similar ideas before, estimating the government could cover tuition for less than $2.5 billion annually if limited to current enrollment levels.
He believes this investment would pay off. “You would see a wholesale change in the profession, career paths and the cost of care,” Cuban said.
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