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Mark Cuban Takes Aim at Medicare Advantage - And Offers Solutions to Lower Health Care Costs

The business guru shares his perspective on pricey Medicare Advantage plans.

By Michelle Smith , Edited by Lisa Dammeyer

Updated April 13, 2026

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Finance mogul Mark Cuban is probably best known for his appearances on "Shark Tank" and his one-time majority ownership of the Dallas Mavericks. More recently, Cuban has been very vocal about the problems of high health care costs in the U.S., and this March, he waded into the conversation surrounding senior benefits by posting a lengthy comment on X (formerly Twitter) about how Medicare Advantage is costing American families money.

According to Cuban, every American family pays around $800 a year to fund expensive Medicare Advantage plans that fail taxpayers and Medicare recipients alike. In this article, we'll walk you through Cuban's argument that Medicare Advantage no longer lives up to its initial promise to put more money in retired seniors' pockets.

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What is Medicare Advantage?

Medicare Advantage plans — also known as Medicare "Part C" — are Medicare-approved plans offered by private insurers. These alternative plans typically limit beneficiaries to regional care networks and may require preauthorizations. However, they're often billed as offering greater financial and health care flexibility than Original Medicare.

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Mark Cuban takes aim at Medicare Advantage

However, in his March 2026 post on X, Cuban wrote that "Medicare Advantage was meant to cost LESS than [traditional] Medicare." But now, "taxpayers pay [Medicare Advantage providers] more than it costs to support [traditional] Medicare," amounting to a cost of around $800 per year for each tax-paying family in the U.S.

Unpacking Cuban's claim

Cuban's argument is that the government overpays private Medicare Advantage insurers relative to what traditional Medicare costs, which means each American household ends up paying more in taxes to support unnecessarily pricey private insurance plans.

In a February 2026 interview on the PBS show "Firing Line," Cuban explained that private insurance companies get away with charging the American public so much money precisely because they're too big. Per Cuban, "they own doctors, providers, pharmacy benefit managers, [in] some cases pharmacies, specialty pharmacies. They are so vertically integrated they literally control and set the pricing of all the economics."

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The problem with pharmacy benefit managers

One of Cuban's major pain points is pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Cuban explains that "they call themselves middlemen between the insurance company and the consumer," though Cuban himself prefers to call them "the Darth Vader of the pharmaceutical industry."

How the 'Darth Vader of the pharmaceutical industry' drives up prices

According to Cuban, PBMs aren't unbiased middlemen. They're owned by health insurance companies, which means they have no motivation to keep prices low for consumers. In fact, the opposite is true: PBMs can inflate medication prices because consumers don't know they're being overcharged.

When it comes to government-sponsored health care, that inflated cost falls back on the American taxpayers that pay into the Medicare system they will rely on in retirement.

Cost Plus Drugs as Cuban's transparency-based alternative

Cuban has tried to solve the problem of elevated prescription costs by funding a fully transparent pharmacy called Cost Plus Drugs. At most, Cuban's pharmacy marks up prices by 15%, and it publishes a complete list of manufacturing prices for the medications it stocks. This lets consumers see exactly how the price they pay for the end product compares to the total manufacturing cost.

In his Firing Line interview, Cuban said he was hopeful that the market would fix the insurance cost problem in time. However, he also noted that "it's going to take a long time and people are going to die" in the meantime, which is why he's a proponent of a new bill being sponsored in the Senate this year called the "Break Up Big Medicine Act."

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The Break Up Big Medicine Act

This bipartisan bill is being co-sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and on both "Firing Line" and X, Cuban has framed this bill as the most direct path to lowering health care costs.

On "Firing Line," he explained that this legislation should "break up the big insurance companies and prohibit parent companies from owning both PBMs and medical providers."

Cuban's call to action for American voters

On X, Cuban called for American taxpayers to make their voices heard by voting for candidates who support Hawley and Warren's legislation. Cuban hopes this push will help speed up the process he's already started with Cost Plus Drugs and lower not just the cost of American drugs but also the overall cost of Medicare for the average taxpayer.

Bottom line

To avoid money mistakes in retirement, you'll likely spend a good deal of time evaluating the differences between Medicare Advantage and Original Medicare. After weighing in-network providers, premium costs, and overall benefits, you should be able to choose a plan that makes the most sense for your retirement budget.

But as Cuban points out, the best way to save money might be getting actively involved in health care legislation. Calling your political representatives to ask how they plan to vote on the Break Up Big Medicine Act is a good first step for voters who are interested in learning more about this issue.

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