Ponying Up: How A Billionaire's Pharmaceutical Company Destroyed The Far Left's Ongoing Class Warfare
This past Wednesday gave us a breakthrough in the area of lower prescription drug prices.
MCCPDC, a Dallas-based pharmaceutical company, announced the launch of its online pharmacy, which aimed to cut out the middleman of prescription drug medication and sell directly to the consumer. In doing business this way, MCCPDC anticipated being able to dramatically slash the cost of hundreds of drugs, providing much-needed relief to millions of Americans, including a large percentage of seniors, who felt financially burdened by the high cost of prescription drugs in this country. From the Wednesday press release:
As a registered pharmaceutical wholesaler, MCCPDC can bypass middlemen and outrageous markups. The pharmacy's prices reflect actual manufacturer prices plus a flat 15% margin and pharmacist fee. With the help of digital healthcare company Truepill, patients can expect a seamless, secure e-commerce experience as they navigate the pharmacy's website, built and powered by Truepill's digital health platform. Patients will also enjoy reliable prescription fulfillment and delivery through Truepill's nationwide pharmacy footprint.
Because the company refuses to pay spread prices to third-party PBMs [pharmacy benefit manager] in order to be allowed to process insurance claims, the online pharmacy will be a cash pay venture. However, its model means patients can immediately purchase a broad array of medications at prices often less than what most insurance plans' deductible and copay requirements would total.
In November 2021 MCCPDC entered the PBM industry to serve companies providing prescription coverage in their employee benefit plans. MCCPDC has pledged to be "radically transparent" in its own negotiations with drug companies as a PBM, revealing the true costs it pays for drugs and eliminating spread pricing and misaligned rebate incentives. MCCPDC anticipates its PBM could save companies millions of dollars with no changes to its benefits, depending on the size of the employer, because it will eliminate the traditional PBM model. The company plans to integrate its pharmacy and wholesaler with its PBM, so any company that uses its PBM will have access to wholesale pricing through its online pharmacy.
"There are numerous bad actors in the pharmaceutical supply chain preventing patients from getting affordable medicines," Oshmyansky said. "The only way to ensure affordable prices get through is to vertically integrate."
In hearing this exciting news, one would expect that those who have been championing prescription drug reform would be over the moon. And yet, here we stand, five days later, with zero words of praise or even acknowledgment from those like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and AOC who have consistently shared that they consider the issue of overpriced prescription drugs to be one of utmost importance in this country. So what gives?
The answer, my friends, lies in exactly who created MCCPDC and that person is none other than billionaire Mark Cuban.
Yes, that Mark Cuban. The one from the billionaire class who is constantly vilified by Sanders, Warren, and AOC simply for having accumulated wealth throughout his lifetime. In a 2019 interview, Cuban acknowledged their criticism but responded that it was odd that all three of them had previously been involved in entrepreneurial jobs and that Sanders himself had become a millionaire through publishing his books. Cuban believed that their criticism directed at him and those in his tax bracket was simple jealousy and that had they achieved the level of wealth that he had, then they might not have been so quick to paint all billionaires with the same brush of being rich, out-of-touch selfish slobs. Cuban, whose resume includes having supported over 120 tech startups along with hundreds of business ventures from his hit Shark Tank television program, even went so far as to admit that rich business owners like himself had an obligation to support social justice work and that the greatest cost of business was disruptions of workers who were forced to rebel against unfair labor practices and working conditions. His latest work to make prescription drugs affordable to millions of Americans only seemed to echo his belief that the richest among us had an obligation to try and make the world a better place.
The reason that Cuban's latest good deed is being ignored by the Sanders/Warren/AOC crowds is simple: they were wrong. They were wrong to paint all billionaires with one overarching brushstroke as the enemy. Sure, it made for good campaign talking points and good on-air sound bites but the truth is that we do have some, dare I say many, good billionaires on our side, too. There are those like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who agree that people like them should be taxed more. In the 2020 election cycle, 7 of the top 10 billionaire donors gave primarily to Democrats. And yes, this included the GOP's favorite boogeyman, George Soros. Sanders, Warren, and AOC never got this type of support and so it became convenient for them to paint all billionaires as evil, malignant individuals. Not having their support was somehow a reflection that the billionaire class was afraid of them and their threats to tax them at a higher level. Meanwhile, Joe Biden was elected not because he was a friend of the billionaire class but because he was the only one who could win in a general election matchup with Donald Trump. The scapegoating of billionaires was simple deflection for a lack of support from the big wig donors of the Democratic Party.
Like many issues on the Far Left, the price of prescription drugs was never about actually helping people. It instead was used as a wedge issue to try and bring down those with support from wealthy financial backers. The fact that the Far Left tried to portray someone like Cory Booker as a tool of Big Pharma during the early part of Trump's presidency showed us exactly the kind of attacks they would try and generate. That's one of their go-to's where they try and misidentify someone with a strong constituency as having somehow "sold out" to big corporations. Ignoring the fact that Booker himself represents New Jersey, a state with a significant workforce in the pharmaceutical field, the Far Left wanted to take down a strong Democrat of color and this is how they chose to do so. By banking on the fact that most Americans were ignorant as to how campaign donations were displayed (if you worked for a company those donations were reported as from that field of work), the Far Left attempted to show that financial support from certain fields was somehow a direct result of corruption on the part of the politician receiving said support.
Mark Cuban's latest initiative should be praised by all Americans who want access to more affordable prescription drugs. It has the potential to bring the cost of life-saving drugs down for tens of millions of Americans. This is a win for American ingenuity, for American entrepreneurship, and for American innovation. This is the type of story that despite everything he's done, may very well be Mark Cuban's legacy. Despite being viewed as an evil billionaire by many on the Far Left, Mark Cuban has put his money where his mouth is and has worked to create a private solution in an area where the federal government has failed. He found a problem that has been a key Democratic Party concern and ended up creating an ingenious workaround that will help millions of everyday Americans. Cuban's online drug company can potentially save thousands of lives and is doing exactly what Sanders, Warren, and AOC said needed to happen.
Which is why they hate it.
They hate it because it was a billionaire from the private sector of all people who stepped in to save the day. By definition, Cuban has to be disliked. He has to be despised. He has to be loathed. Because he's one of them. To acknowledge a good deed by a billionaire would force them to admit that not everyone from the billionaire class is a heinous fiend. It completely defeats their class warfare position. It ruins their stump speeches. Vilifying only some of the billionaire class doesn't sound as convincing. But this is what happens with the Far Left. They paint themselves into a corner. They try to make complex issues black and white when, in fact, we know that they are often a shade of gray. They oversimplify issues with the hope that none of their supporters will actually stop and ask if that really is the case. It's not hard for us to admit that billionaires are taking advantage of the ways our current laws are written while also acknowledging that some of them are putting forth their own money to make the world a better place. Unlike the Far Left, we can successfully hold both positions in our minds without having our heads explode. Because unlike them, we understand that to solve real problems in this country, we need real solutions from everyone from the lowest-paid worker to the billionaire on Shark Tank.
It's 2022 and we're facing a major political party that has openly embraced fascism. We need all hands on deck and yes, those hands include billionaires like Mark Cuban. So while the Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren/AOC crowd continues to vilify billionaires for their own political gain, centrist and moderate Democrats will be more than happy to see our chosen candidates accept donations from Super PACS and billionaire donors. Because embracing purity politics may sound good and make you feel all warm and fuzzy but it doesn't help you win when the other side will lie, cheat, and steal their way to victory. Mark Cuban is an ally who just so happens to be a billionaire. If you can't see past his wealth then you honestly don't understand the severity of the situation we're in. By creating boogeymen on our own team, the Far Left is doing everything it can to undermine some of the most influential donors the Democratic Party has and in doing so in a way that threatens their support in future elections. The Far Left's vilification of wealth does nothing to help the party and instead creates tension for both those big donors as well as candidates who are smart enough to continue to accept their support. Fortunately for the rest of us, billionaires like Mark Cuban know better than to listen to a handful of small voices trying to ruin their good names.
And all of us know better than to let these small voices ruin the Democratic Party.