James Talarico teams with Mark Cuban on new healthcare ‘monopolies’ plan

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico 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 to launch it.

Talarico, a member of the Texas House of Representatives who is running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in one of the most closely-watched Senate races of the 2026 election cycle, will appear with Cuban for a live event and podcast recording in Fort Worth on Saturday to discuss the plan.

“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 — 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 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. The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates the race a “toss-up,” and recent polling shows Talarico and Paxton neck-and-neck.

Democrats across the country have hammered home 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 have hurt the economy and raised prices.

Talarico is taking the same approach on healthcare, arguing that consolidation is causing the cost of health insurance and care to rise; small, physician-owned practices to be bought out by larger hospital groups; and revenue for large insurance companies to skyrocket.

He cited recent reports that found 90% of all hospital beds are controlled by large hospital systems and just three pharmacy benefit managers — CVS Caremark, Cigna‘s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group‘s Optum RX — process roughly 80% of prescriptions nationwide.

Representatives for Express Scripts and Optum RX did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

David Whitrap, vice president of communications at CVS Health said in a statement 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 should “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.”