Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) speaks at a marketing campaign rally on March 2, 2026 in Houston, Texas. Talarico is visiting various places around the explain within the lead as a lot as the next day’s primaries.
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Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is out with a brand original opinion, first shared with CNBC, to interrupt up what he says are healthcare monopolies and elevate down the price of prescription medication. And he’s teaming up with entrepreneur Effect Cuban to commence it.
Talarico, a member of the Texas House of Representatives who’s running in opposition to explain Attorney General Ken Paxton in a single of essentially the most closely-watched Senate races of the 2026 election cycle, will appear with Cuban for a are living event and podcast recording in Castle Charge on Saturday to talk about the opinion.
“Mark and I agree it’s time to break up the Big Medicine monopolies that control our broken healthcare system,” Talarico said in a assertion to CNBC. “Healthcare corporations are ripping us off — jacking up premiums and profiting off our pain. This plan will break up monopolies, lower medical debt, bring down the cost of prescription drugs, and ensure doctors decide what medication their patients need — not insurance companies.”
Talarico is making an attempt to become the foremost Democrat elected statewide in Texas since 1994, in a seat that would possibly perhaps perhaps be key for the safe collectively if they’re making an attempt to receive control of the Senate from Republicans. The Put collectively dinner Political Epic with Amy Walter rates the lag a “toss-up,” and recent polling reveals Talarico and Paxton neck-and-neck.
Democrats across the country occupy hammered residence a cost-of-living message heading into the November election, criticizing President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled House and Senate for enacting policies they say occupy injure the economy and raised costs.
Talarico is taking the identical plan on healthcare, arguing that consolidation is causing the cost of correctly being insurance and care to upward thrust; minute, physician-owned practices to be offered out by increased clinical institution teams; and income for gigantic insurance companies to skyrocket.
He cited recent experiences that stumbled on 90% of all clinical institution beds are controlled by gigantic clinical institution systems and proper three pharmacy income managers — CVS Caremark, Cigna‘s Explicit Scripts and UnitedHealth Neighborhood‘s Optum RX — assignment roughly 80% of prescriptions nationwide.
Representatives for Explicit Scripts and Optum RX did now not straight reply to requests for statement.
David Whitrap, vice president of communications at CVS Health said in a assertion that “CVS Caremark is proud of the work we do to fight back against pharma price gouging and to make prescription drugs more affordable for American employers, unions, and consumers.”
He said any policies can occupy to “be assessed through a data-driven analysis about whether they would ultimately raise or lower costs for the American public. Many proposed ‘PBM reforms’ are simply a handout to Big Pharma, and they ultimately would increase US drug costs.”
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In an announcement of the opinion, Talarico voiced his give a plot shut to for antitrust legislation that he said would rob aim at vertically integrated correctly being-care conglomerates, like PBMs, insurance companies and clinical institution networks.
It can perhaps bar PBMs from hiding pricing info, build incentives to kind and approve generic medication and institute caps on out-of-pocket charges, fixed with the announcement.
A representative from the American Scientific institution Association did now not straight reply to a request for statement on Thursday.
Greg Lopes, a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Care Administration Association, the switch neighborhood representing PBMs, said in a assertion that “PBMs are the only part of the drug supply chain lowering prescription drug costs.” He argued there would possibly be no such thing as a evidence that vertically-integrated plans end result in greater charges.
“One of the things American patients and families most dislike about our health care system is how fragmented and complex it is, and this legislation would only make that problem far worse — sending patients into a deeper maze of discontinuous care,” Lopes said.
“Health plans operate in highly competitive markets and are the only part of the healthcare system with a clear incentive to keep coverage and care as affordable as possible,” Chris Bond, a spokesperson for AHIP, the switch neighborhood representing correctly being insurance suppliers, said in a assertion. “Commonsense policy solutions are needed to rein in hospital systems and brand drugmakers’ anti-competitive practices and ever-higher prices which are the root causes of the affordability crisis.”
Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who in 2022 founded the Effect Cuban Designate Plus Drug Firm, which is centered on lowering the patron cost of generic prescription medication by lowering out PBMs and negotiating straight with pharmaceutical producers, has spoken favorably of Talarico.
Effect Cuban, co-founding father of Designate Plus Treatment, arrives for a Senate Special Committee on Increasing old hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.
Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
In an Aug. 21 appearance on the “Pivot” podcast with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, Cuban called Talarico “honest” and said he would “do the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing.”
In a assertion, Cuban said Talarico’s healthcare opinion would “break up healthcare monopolies and lower the price of medicine.”
“I’ve spent a long time working to reduce the cost of healthcare for everybody – politicians in Washington have not. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or an independent – you want more affordable, better quality healthcare. The plan James has put together will accomplish exactly that, which is why I am supporting it,” Cuban continued.
Disclosure: CNBC owns the queer off-community cable rights to “Shark Tank,” which components Effect Cuban as a panelist.
