U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Thursday questioned David Joyner, the CEO of CVS Health, which owns the health insurance company Aetna, Oak Street Health Medical Clinics, and CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager which helps negotiates rebates and prescription prices for nearly 30 percent of all prescriptions in the U.S.
When AOC suggested that CVS holds a “market concentration,” Joyner disagreed and said it is a model that “works very well for the consumer.”
The Congresswoman replied, “I think it works very well for CVS,” because all of the CVS entities get a cut of each transaction,” and added, “The patient gets screwed.”
With the video below, AOC wrote: “Health care monopolies on patient care screw over working families and destroy your ability to access affordable care. All so corporate CEOs, like those from CVS Health, can pad their pockets. We must break up big medicine. We need a Glass-Steagall for Health Care.”
[Note: After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Glass-Steagall Act effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), among other things. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law in June 1933.]
While MAGA supporters are responding to AOC and blaming her and the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) for the current insurance landscape, billionaire and Cost Plus Drugs owner Mark Cuban responded with a suggestion.
Too big to care. Make them divest all non insurance assets.
They have thousands of subsidiaries and their intercompany transfers are almost 1 percent of the gdp of this country ! https://t.co/OTisD0iVE7
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 23, 2026
He replied to AOC: “Too big to care. Make them divest all non insurance assets. They have thousands of subsidiaries and their intercompany transfers are almost 1 percent of the gdp of this country !”
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the annualized rate of U.S. nominal GDP is approximately $31.1 trillion; and is expected to reach around $31.8 trillion for the full year 2026. One percent of $31 trillion is $310 billion.