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https://fortune.com/well/2024/03/08/mark-cuban-ceo...

{{ Two years ago, [Cuban’s companies](https://markcubancompanies.com/) were [self-insured](https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/self-insured-p...), with him effectively writing personal checks for out-of-pocket health care expenses. As Cost Plus Drugs got off the ground, he says he compared the prices of generic prescription medications he’d been paying for to those offered by his new pharmacy.

**“What we spent $160,000 on at the [[Dallas Mavericks](https://fortune.com/tag/nba/)], we could have purchased for $19,000 for Cost Plus,”** he tells *Fortune.* “We decided once that plan ended last year, we were going to replace it, and so I wanted to go through the entire process of understanding what I did right or wrong.”

He first turned to the employee benefits consultant who had assured him he was getting a great deal—someone whose advice also cost $30 per employee per month.

“That’s insane, that was millions of dollars,” Cuban says. “The person who put me into a program where I was paying eight times more than I should have for generic medication, they’re done.”

Around the time he dropped the consultant, **Cuban was planning to get a CT colonoscopy, which he says would’ve cost more than $2,000 through insurance. Yet the walk-in cost for the same procedure was less than $500.**

“What is the purpose of this insurance company that I’m working with—and the PBM that they’re connecting me to—when I can just walk in off the street and save myself a ton of money?” Cuban asks. “What we’ve done at my companies is we’ve walked away from the traditional way.” }}

I've known this for at least the past 25 years and assume that my health insurer is "legally" trying to cheat me. Thus, I always try to figure out the cost of paying cash for the medical service or prescription drug I've been prescribed, and compare it to what the insurance company would charge me. I've saved tens of thousands of dollars over the years by assuming the worst from the Medical/Industrial Complex.

As long as voters continue to support the bipartisan culture of corruption in Washington, nothing is going to change.

I got a letter yesterday in the mail that my Primary Care doctor had been bought out by Big Medicine. Pending regulatory approval, I have until Jan 1st 2025 to make other arrangements.

When I went to the new owner's website to see if they'd still accept traditional Medicare, I got a link to a Medicare Advantage sales agent. {{ LOL }}

I'll get my Primary Care in the emergency room before I sign up with Medicare Advantage.

intercst

Insurance is mostly for the big stuff. It doesn't really pay back for the little stuff. But if you need cancer surgery and chemo (and/or radiation), that starts to add up fast.

Which is why I'm OK with a high deductible.

<< Which is why I'm OK with a high deductible >>

I think the point of the article (and Mark Cuban's argument) is that whatever your deductible, you're paying between 4 times and 10 times the cost it should be. And these so called "experts" (i.e., Cuban's consultant) you're dealing with are telling you that's a good deal.

Many people are under the impression that your health insurer is beating the bushes to get you the best price on doctor visits, hospital charges, and prescription drugs. That's obviously not true.

intercst

Many people are under the impression that your health insurer is beating the bushes to get you the best price on doctor visits, hospital charges, and prescription drugs. That's obviously not true.

Agreed. But without insurance you are screwed if you can't get an agreed price up front, which you can't for most services.

We go very high deductible Bronze plan ($10k pp) and pay out of pocket for some services.

A high deductible plan with HSA would be ideal. None available in our area with our doctors, so we stick with our very high deductible, non-HSA plan.

intercst, having others pi$$ing in his cornflakes since 1999. Bummer

Oh, I have no such illusions. I hate insurance. They are just middlemen that add costs/friction, often getting in the way of getting treatment, while providing very little in return for health maintenance. But, without a nationalized health system paid for with taxes, it would be crazy not to have catastrophic health insurance. As Goofyhoofy used to say: your health will be fine until it isn't. And that time could be major, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars (my surgery...I saw the bill...over $150K before contract discounts, etc...I paid about $5K for surgery and a week in the ICU).

When 1poorMIL came to this country, she already was a senior. But she didn't qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. For the first few years until she got her citizenship, we used doctors and labs that accepted out-of-pocket payments. They are available, but you have to look for them. Her doctor then actually offered a discount of their rate for people who didn't have insurance (and the lab didn't accept insurance at all, and literally had a menu of tests with the associated cost for each test). Once a citizen, she qualified for Medicare and Medicaid.**




**Which is how I know most of the claims about "illegals" obtaining Medicare and Medicaid are bogus...they wouldn't qualify, as my MIL didn't even though she spent her first several years here as a legal permanent resident.

<< For the first few years until she got her citizenship, we used doctors and labs that accepted out-of-pocket payments. They are available, but you have to look for them. >>

You don't even need a doctor to order a lab test. I was ordering my own labs online for 20 years (until I got on Medicare) once I figured out that the health insurer was screwing me. And the funny thing is that I went to the same place the doctor's office would have sent me to draw the blood and it was sent to the same lab for analysis, but it was 1/3 the cost to me. It's just nuts.

intercst

<< intercst, having others pi$$ing in his cornflakes since 1999. Bummer >>

I don't think it's "pissing in the cornflakes". It's just being alert to where you're getting screwed, and taking the initiative to work around it. (No doubt, a high bar for many.)

intercst

Obviously insurance costs doctors, hospitals, etc. tons of money in terms of staff to process all of the insurance forms that have to be done. And you have all of the high paid executives at health insurance companies that need to get paid. It is just a middle man that provides no real benefit but chews up a ton of money and costs the consumer a ton of money. And they stay around due to spending a lot of money on lobbyists, not much different to real estate agents (despite the changes the agents still are trying to control the commission fees).

Sadly so much of our money is consumed and produces nothing. You have defense weapons, ships, etc. being purchased that the military branches themselves often don't want but politicians keep them so they can provide jobs, essentially welfare.

Unfortunately medical care is something virtually everyone needs and the costs just keep soaring upwards.

Which is how I know most of the claims about "illegals" obtaining Medicare and Medicaid are bogus...they wouldn't qualify

In CA, they do now qualify for Medi-Cal (their Medicaid program which is mostly funded with federal funds).

https://wclp.org/california-becomes-first-state-to...

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