Cost Plus vs Walgreens: My 90 Day Prescription Cost Less Without Insurance

HEY MARK. JUST GOT MY COST PLUS ORDER. WE STILL NEED TO TALK.

Full disclosure. I am *NOT* an ambassador. I am *NOT* on the payroll. I am just a bald schmempf from Brooklyn with a 90 day supply of a generic med that keeps me alive 30 years after brain cancer had its chance and failed miserably.

Here is what showed up in my inbox today.

Subtotal: $7.93

Shipping: $5.25

Total: $13.18

My copay at Walgreens for the same 90 day supply? $30 + tax.

Let me say that again. Shipping was almost as much as the medication. And it still cost me less than half of what I pay through insurance.

That is not a glitch. That is the PBM markup exposed in broad daylight.

We are not talking pennies here. We are talking billions. Every year. Siphoned off by middlemen who add zero value to the transaction. They do not manufacture the drug. They do not dispense the drug. They just stand between you and your prescription with their hand out.

Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, PBC is not perfect. Nothing is. But it is one of the few examples of actual transparency in an industry built on obfuscation. You see the cost. You see the markup. 

You see where your money goes.

I am not here to tell everyone to dump CVS or Walgreens. Well, maybe a little. (Time to lawyer up?) BUT I am here to show you what is possible when someone decides the grift has gone on long enough.

So Mark Cuban, if you are reading this. Thanks for making it suck a little less in my wallet. And if you ever want to talk about what comes next for patients, you've known where to find me for several months.

Also, sorry you can't make the 4/28 NYC launch event for my new book We the Patients: Understanding, Navigating, and Surviving America's Healthcare Nightmare, but I know a shit ton of people who would love to send you you a copy to devour over a weekend and get pissed with us.

Welcome to 2026: The Year of the Patient where the sick shall inherit the ballot.

If this hits home, drop your Cost Plus story in the comments. Or your PBM horror story. Every impression pushes this in front of more people paying too much for the meds that keep them alive.

Are you new here? My condolences and my thanks. Follow along and stay loud with the rest of us.