The Cuban Medical Crisis

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This is the second article I have written about Mark Cuban’s interest in DPC. You can read the first here. And here is a video Cuban did on YouTube:

A quick AI summary for those who don’t want to watch:

Cuban proposes incorporating a DPC-style model into a reformed system:

  • He suggests using premium subsidy funds (or equivalent resources from things like Health Savings Accounts/HSAs) to allocate roughly $100–$150 per month per person toward a “direct primary care outlet.”
  • Patients would pay this on a monthly subscription basis directly to the primary care provider/clinic.
  • This would cover routine/first-level primary care without traditional insurance barriers or intermediaries.
  • For those who can’t afford even that amount, the government would subsidize or cover the gap (means-tested), while higher-end providers could opt out/opt in.
  • He frames this as making primary care universally accessible and cheaper than typical insurance premiums, while pairing it with full price transparency, reference-based pricing for other services, simplified billing (invoices instead of claims), and government covering what individuals can’t afford.

He makes some very good points here, and I don’t dislike the Cubes. He hasn’t done anything to hurt me, so this is not a personal attack. My concern is about protecting the purity and success of Direct Primary Care. With that in mind, I bring you what I call the “Cuban Medical Crisis.” (The image above is Mark Cuban as Slim Pickens riding a nuclear bomb in the movie Dr. Stangelove). Why? Because, for either good or bad, Cuban could really help or really destroy DPC.

As a billionaire businessman and Shark Tank member and owner of Cost Plus Drugs, he needs to prove to us that he doesn’t want to scale up Direct Primary Care into one big company and put us in shackles again. Raise your hand if you want to work as an employed physician for Cost Plus DPC?

I need to hear him say that he supports organic, free range, mom and pop, DPC offices owned by the doctors themselves, and that VCs and Private Equity need to stay out.

Unless he does that, then I worry he will be the scorpion (yes, I am doing another metaphor) who the frog (DPC docs) lets get on his back and stings him halfway across the river.

Prove me wrong, Mark Cuban. Please.

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About Douglas Farrago, MD

Dr. Farrago is a retired family physician based in Forest, Virginia. Since 2021, he has run DPCnews.com, a leading resource for the Direct Primary Care (DPC) movement. He is the author of three best-selling books on Direct Primary Care: The Official Guide to Starting Your Own Direct Primary Care Practice The Direct Primary Care Doctor’s Daily Motivational Journal Slowing the Churn in Direct Primary Care (While Also Keeping Your Sanity) In 2016, Dr. Farrago conceived the idea for the Direct Primary Care Alliance and co-founded the organization alongside other pioneering DPC physicians. He is widely recognized as a leading expert in the DPC model and frequently lectures to medical students, residents, and practicing physicians on how to successfully start and run their own DPC practices.Dr. Farrago sold his Direct Primary Care practice in October 2020 but continues to receive care there as a patient.