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Mark Cuban started his low-cost online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs, in 2022.
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Cuban said he started looking into the pharmaceutical business in 2017.
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He was prompted by friends in the GOP who asked him whether he had an Obamacare alternative, he said.
The "Shark Tank" star Mark Cuban said his interest in the US healthcare system began after his GOP friends asked him whether he could come up with a replacement for Obamacare.
"Going back to 2018 or 2017, being here in Texas, I had some Republican friends who were asking me questions like, 'Do you have any ideas how the Republicans can replace the ACA, Obamacare?'" Cuban said in an episode of the "Hims House" podcast, which aired on Tuesday.
"I'm like: 'No, but it's an interesting question. Let me see if I can come up with some ideas.' So that got me into healthcare. The ideas, you know, never got that far, but it really got me, turned me into a healthcare geek," Cuban added.
Cuban said his interest led him to pay for studies to find out why healthcare costs more in the US compared with countries such as Canada.
"It became very obvious the more I dug in, that there was zero transparency, no transparency, and that there were a lot of vested interests that wanted opacity. They want it to be as opaque as possible so that people can't make good decisions when it comes to their healthcare," Cuban said on the podcast.
Back in 2017, Cuban detailed his own plan to fix Obamacare on his blog, Blog Maverick. Cuban called for a single-payer coverage system for chronic physical or mental illness and for any life-threatening injury.
"Everything not covered by the above can be covered by insurance sold on the free market, managed by the states, sold across state lines, without government interference," Cuban wrote.
Later, in 2022, Cuban cofounded Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Co., a low-cost online pharmacy.
Unlike its competitors, Cost Plus Drugs keeps costs low by sourcing its drugs directly from manufacturers and eliminating the extra costs imposed by pharmaceutical intermediaries. Customers pay a 15% markup to Cost Plus Drugs, as well as a fixed $5 labor charge for each medication and $5 for shipping.
"We are completely transparent, with the same price for anyone and everyone," Cuban told Business Insider's Hilary Brueck in a story published in August. "We believe that when all data is transparent, then the market becomes efficient. At that point, prices will drop significantly."