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.<\/p>\n
The event is 5 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Ridglea Theater, 6025 Camp Bowie Blvd., according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/a>. Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov is scheduled to moderate. The session is also planned as a podcast recording.<\/p>\n Talarico, a Texas state representative running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, told CNBC: \u201cMark and I agree it\u2019s time to break up the Big Medicine monopolies that control our broken healthcare system.\u201d He said the proposal would lower medical debt and prescription costs and \u201censure doctors decide what medication their patients need \u2014 not insurance companies.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s plan would \u201cbreak up healthcare monopolies and lower the price of medicine.\u201d He added that people \u201cwant more affordable, better quality healthcare\u201d regardless of party.<\/p>\n Talarico cited figures that large hospital systems control about 90% of U.S. hospital beds and that three pharmacy benefit managers \u2014 CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx \u2014 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.<\/p>\n The Texas Medical Association says about 4.7 million Texans are uninsured, nearly twice the national rate, the Star-Telegram reported.<\/a><\/p>\n Paxton\u2019s campaign has focused on cultural issues and has not issued a detailed response to this specific plan in the coverage reviewed Thursday.<\/p>\n LISTEN<\/a> on the Audacy App
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