Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico and entrepreneur Mark Cuban will appear together Saturday in Fort Worth to promote a plan they say would break up health care monopolies and lower drug prices.
The event is 5 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Ridglea Theater, 6025 Camp Bowie Blvd., according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov is scheduled to moderate. The session is also planned as a podcast recording.
Talarico, a Texas state representative running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, told CNBC: “Mark and I agree it’s time to break up the Big Medicine monopolies that control our broken healthcare system.” He said the proposal would lower medical debt and prescription costs and “ensure doctors decide what medication their patients need — not insurance companies.”
Cuban, who co-founded the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company in 2022 to sell generics with less middleman markup, said in a statement that Talarico’s plan would “break up healthcare monopolies and lower the price of medicine.” He added that people “want more affordable, better quality healthcare” regardless of party.
Talarico cited figures that large hospital systems control about 90% of U.S. hospital beds and that three pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx — process about 80% of prescriptions, according to CNBC and Fox 7 Austin. He said he would support the bipartisan Break Up Big Medicine Act introduced by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley, which would limit pharmacy benefit managers from owning medical providers.
The Texas Medical Association says about 4.7 million Texans are uninsured, nearly twice the national rate, the Star-Telegram reported.
Paxton’s campaign has focused on cultural issues and has not issued a detailed response to this specific plan in the coverage reviewed Thursday.
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