Mark Cuban is picking a fight with Elon Musk over who really runs healthcare in America, and spoiler alert: it's not the government.
The Dallas Mavericks owner went on a Friday posting spree on X, taking aim at insurance companies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers after Musk compared government healthcare to getting medical treatment at the DMV. Cuban wasn't buying it.
"What insurance companies and PBMs do you use for your companies?" Cuban wrote. "Wanna bet they have more control over your healthcare than the feds ever could? Wanna bet they won't let you use grok or Optimus for your own employees? Wanna bet they won't let you publish your contracts? The regulatory capture in the industry by the biggest players is worse than what the government would do to healthcare Prove me wrong."
That's three separate bets, if you're counting. Cuban's argument is that private insurers have already captured the healthcare system so thoroughly that they'd block even Musk's companies from using innovative tools like Grok and Optimus for employee healthcare.
Michael Dahle pushed back, defending Musk's track record as an employer. "I am a recipient of that insurance. They cover way more than normal. He has not skimped on that," Dahle wrote, praising the insurance Musk provides at his companies.
Cuban's posts tap into a bigger conversation about who calls the shots in healthcare. Critics argue that insurance companies and PBMs have become gatekeepers who prioritize profits over patient care, creating barriers for new approaches to medicine. The question is whether that's worse than government control, which is exactly what Cuban and Musk are arguing about.
