Mark Cuban made his pitch. Governor Mikie Sherrill is taking the deal.
Over the weekend, billionaire entrepreneur and former Shark Tank star Mark Cuban offered to help New Jersey rein in the soaring cost of health benefits for public employees. “I’ll volunteer to be on the committee that cuts your health benefits cost,” Cuban wrote on X, tagging Sherrill in the post. “You need someone from the outside that is objective, and can stand up to the big healthcare conglomerates.” His post included a link to the September agreement between the Sherrill administration and 17 state employee unions.
On Monday, Sherrill said yes. “Thanks for the offer. I appreciate your innovative work in this space as we bring all ideas to the table,” she told Cuban, according to New Jersey Globe. “We’d love to have you on Team Jersey as we tackle this challenge. Let’s talk—we’ll reach out today.” She added: “No more kicking the can down the road in New Jersey. I want accountability and results.”
@GovSherrillNJ I’ll volunteer to be on the committee that cuts your health benefits cost. You need someone from the outside that is objective, and can stand up to the big healthcare conglomerates https://t.co/8wlvvqUPec — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) October 3, 2026
That’s a shift from a day earlier, when her office welcomed Cuban’s interest but wouldn’t say whether she’d accept. “We’re pleased that under Gov. Sherrill’s leadership, there is growing momentum to finally undertake the reforms needed to fix the State Health Benefits Plan,” spokesman Sean Higgins said in a statement.
What role Cuban will play isn’t clear yet. The State Health Benefits Program Reform Working Group holds its first meeting on October 16. It includes labor unions, health care organizations, insurers, local government groups, and representatives of all four partisan legislative offices. The administration has said it can add participants and outside experts as the review moves forward.
Cuban’s offer isn’t coming from nowhere. His company, Cost Plus Drugs, aims to lower prescription costs by cutting out middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers, which New Jersey lawmakers also targeted in a bill earlier this year.
In testimony to Texas lawmakers, which he pointed Sherrill to, Cuban called for allowing patients to buy prescriptions for less than their insurance price and count the purchase toward their deductible; standardizing contracts for pharmacy benefit managers; requiring public disclosure of pricing, fees, and rebates in government health contracts; and ending gag clauses.
Cuban, an independent who describes himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, has called complex PBM contracts “contractual terrorism.”
The stakes in New Jersey are big. The state’s public employee health plans cover roughly 690,000 members across state, local government, and education plans, and officials have described the programs as in a “death spiral”, according to NJ.com. The September union agreement shields state workers from higher contribution rates in 2027 while starting a broader review of the system. The working group is expected to look at vendor contracting, provider networks, prescription drug costs, plan design, premiums, governance, and data transparency, with detailed implementation work continuing into 2027.
Republican State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, a member of the working group and a longtime critic of how the state handles public employee health costs, had urged Sherrill to accept the offer. “If we don’t take Mark Cuban up on his offer, we’re not really serious,” he wrote on X, adding that he’s already a Cost Plus Drugs customer.
Now the question is what Cuban’s seat at the table looks like, and whether his ideas make it into the group’s recommendations.
Lifelong Jersey resident and Rutgers and FDU alumnus, Tom La Vecchia is publisher of New Jersey Digest, one of the state’s leading lifestyle media brands. When he’s not growing the Digest, he’s raising four kids, wrangling four cats and pretending it’s all under control. His mission: keep Jersey interesting and impossible to ignore.
