Most people are paying for health insurance without fully understanding what they’re getting in return. That disconnect isn’t new, but according to billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, it’s no longer a valid excuse.
“You are not smart if you don’t run your insurance contracts through Claude or any other LLM and ask for a summary and issues you will face,” Cuban wrote in a recent post on X.
Cuban was responding to a person who said they don’t know a single person who has read and understood their health insurance policies.
Don’t Miss:
In Cuban’s view, tools like AI chatbots can simplify complex insurance documents, highlight risks, and answer questions in plain language. “Get that summary and suggestions,” he wrote. “Ask it questions and to explain, simply, the things you don’t understand.”
His argument is that if you’re not using available technology to understand your coverage, you could be missing key details that cost you money. That can mean overpaying for coverage you don’t need, missing benefits you’re entitled to, or getting hit with avoidable out-of-pocket costs simply because you didn’t understand the fine print.
The bigger issue, Cuban suggests, is how the system itself is structured. In another post, he described a cycle where insurance companies design plans with deductibles “that most people can’t afford.”
That creates a situation where patients take on debt just to access their own coverage. “To get to the insurance money from their plan, they will loan the patient money to cover their deductible,” Cuban wrote. “That turns the hospital into a sub prime lender.”
Trending: Skip the Regrets: The Essential Retirement Tips Experts Wish Everyone Knew Earlier.
He added that insurers often “under pay, late pay and claw back in the contract,” increasing financial pressure on hospitals. At the same time, delays and denials allow insurers to “earn interest on the premiums.”
Hospitals, in turn, respond by adding extra fees and expanding billing practices. Cuban pointed to “ridiculous sh*t like facilities fees,” as well as what he described as abuse of pricing programs and billing structures.
Cuban also criticized how hospital systems operate internally. He said that many spend excessively on consultants and expansion, saying they “spend like drunken sailors on everything they can.” He also said administrative staff outnumber doctors, and collectively earn more than them.
