Elon Musk Wants to Know Why Healthcare Costs So Much — Mark Cuban Gives Him 7 Brutal Reasons Why CEOs Like Him Are Making It Worse

Benzinga ^ | March 6, 2025 | Jeannine Mancini

[where's_the_Outrage?]

Elon Musk knows rockets, AI, and electric cars, but does he understand healthcare? Mark Cuban seems to think he doesn't.

When Musk posted on X in December questioning why Americans pay so much for healthcare without seeing real value, he echoed a frustration shared by millions. Citing the fact that the U.S. has the highest healthcare administrative costs among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, an account called The Rabbit Hole pointed out the disparity.

Musk responded bluntly: "Shouldn't the American people be getting their money's worth....

Cuban laid out seven ways those contracts are keeping drug prices high and hurting employees. His exact list stated:

Don't control your claims data

Don't control your formulary

Have to pay more for "Specialty Drugs" that have nothing special about them

Get rebates that are paid for by your sickest and oldest employees and result in higher deductibles and co-pays that impact the wellness of your workers and their families.

Cause independent pharmacies to be reimbursed for less than their costs for brand drug scripts for your employees and families, causing them to go out of business.

Can't talk to manufacturers to put together wellness programs for things like GLP1s.

Signed a PBM contract with an NDA which prevents you from publicly discussing your PBM contract, resulting in an opaque, inefficient market, which leads to higher prices and lower quality of care for the entire country.

"All of this allows the big PBMs to continue to distort the pharmacy market for literally EVERYONE," he wrote.

[madison10]

Three thousand dollars is insane.

[madison10]

Three thousand dollars is insane.

[citizen]

The system is gov’t controlled and set up to be expensive. Everything is forced thru insurance companies and levels of associated medical companies. They all get a cut and many can set their own prices.

[imabadboy99]

insane growth in the number of extremely highly paid “administrators” in the last few decades

plus 100 million illegals soaking up free healthcare in the emergency rooms

[plain talk]

“1. I have already paid for the insurance, so I really don’t care how much it costs to fix the car — I want the best parts, best service, etc”

Well stated.

[Alberta's Child]

When I say “third party payment” systems, I am referring to both private insurance AND government-run programs like Medicare.

The real heart of the problem is the natural human tendency for people to believe they have a God-given right to force others to pay for their medical care.

[buwaya]

I meant it about the Euros. They have every sort of “third party” payment system, if you want to call it that. And yet their cost structure is vastly lower.

[buwaya]

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/#GDP%20per%20capita%20and%20health%20consumption%20spending%20per%20capita,%202022%20(U.S.%20dollars,%20PPP%20adjusted)

[Alberta's Child]

That's good information. I think it's difficult to make comparisons on a simple per-capita basis like these numbers show.

A better approach would be to make comparisons among nations for comparable medical treatments -- i.e., what is the cost of a hip replacement, triple bypass, pregnancy/birth, etc. for each nation?

And then look at the costs relative to things like wait times, frequency of treatments, potential over-treatment or over-prescription of pharmaceuticals, etc.

[packrat35]

Lawyers

[bankwalker]

cost shifting ...