Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) speaks at a campaign rally on March 2, 2026 in Houston, Texas. Talarico is visiting various locations around the state in the lead up to tomorrow’s primaries. <\/p>\n
Danielle Villasana | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Texas Democratic Senate<\/a> candidate James Talarico<\/a> is out with a new plan, first shared with CNBC, to break up what he says are healthcare monopolies and bring down the cost of prescription drugs. And he’s teaming up with entrepreneur Mark Cuban<\/a> to launch it.<\/p>\n Talarico,\u00a0a member of the Texas House of Representatives who is running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> in one of the most closely-watched Senate races of the 2026 election cycle<\/a>, will appear with Cuban for a live event<\/a> and podcast recording in Fort Worth on Saturday to discuss the plan.<\/p>\n “Mark and I agree it’s time to break up the Big Medicine monopolies that control our broken healthcare system,” Talarico said in a statement to CNBC. “Healthcare corporations are ripping us off \u2014 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 \u2014 not insurance companies.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat elected statewide in Texas since 1994, in a seat that would be key for the party if they want to win control of the Senate from Republicans<\/a>. The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates the race a “toss-up<\/a>,” and recent polling shows Talarico and Paxton neck-and-neck.<\/a><\/p>\n Democrats across the country have hammered home a cost-of-living message<\/a> heading into the November election, criticizing President Donald Trump<\/a> and the GOP-controlled House and Senate for enacting policies they say<\/strong> have hurt the economy and raised prices.<\/p>\n Talarico is taking the same approach on healthcare, arguing that consolidation is causing the cost of health insurance<\/a> and care to rise<\/a>; small, physician-owned practices to be bought out<\/a> by larger hospital groups; and revenue for large insurance companies to skyrocket.<\/a><\/p>\n He cited recent reports that found 90% of all hospital bed<\/a>s are controlled by large hospital systems and just three pharmacy benefit managers \u2014 CVS Caremark,<\/a> Cigna<\/a>‘s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group<\/a>‘s Optum RX<\/a> \u2014 process roughly 80% of prescriptions nationwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more CNBC politics and policy coverage<\/p>\n In an announcement of the plan, Talarico voiced his support for antitrust legislation that he said would take aim at vertically integrated health-care conglomerates, like pharmacy benefit managers, insurance companies and hospital networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n It would bar PBMs from hiding pricing data, create incentives to develop and approve generic drugs and institute caps on out-of-pocket costs, according to the announcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Representatives from the American Hospital Association and AHIP \u2014 the trade groups representing hospitals and health insurance providers \u2014 did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n Greg Lopes, a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the trade group representing PBMs, said in a statement that “PBMs are the only part of the drug supply chain lowering prescription drug costs.” He argued there is no evidence that vertically-integrated plans lead to higher costs.<\/p>\n “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 \u2014 sending patients into a deeper maze of discontinuous care,” Lopes said.<\/p>\n Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who in 2022 founded the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company,<\/a> which is focused on lowering the consumer cost of generic prescription drugs by cutting out PBMs and negotiating directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers, has spoken favorably of Talarico.<\/p>\n Mark Cuban, co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs, arrives for a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. <\/p>\n Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n In an Aug. 21 appearance on the “Pivot” podcast<\/a> with Kara Swisher<\/a> and Scott Galloway<\/a>, Cuban called Talarico “honest” and said he would “do the right thing instead of the politically expedient thing.”<\/p>\n In a statement, Cuban said Talarico’s healthcare plan would “break up healthcare monopolies and lower the price of medicine.”<\/p>\n \u00a0“I’ve spent a long time working to reduce the cost of healthcare for everybody \u2013 politicians in Washington have not. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or an independent \u2013 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.<\/p>\n Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank,” which features Mark Cuban as a panelist.<\/p>\n