We Said This Before It Was Proven
Documented. Dated. Public. Before the partnerships caught up to it.
December 27, 2025
Before Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs partnered with TrumpRx. Before affordability became the defining issue of New York's mayoral race. We posted a video laying out the same core mechanism PHIERS has documented for over a decade: telehealth as primary coverage for the 80% who don't need hospitalization, non-profit drug purchasing without markups or middlemen, and the savings redirected toward the priorities people actually voted for.
Since then, the gap has only widened. Average marketplace premiums climbed to roughly $9,000 a year for an individual in 2026 — a 21% jump in a single year — while average family premiums through employer coverage are now approaching $27,000 a year. The $600-a-year telehealth comparison isn't holding steady against a stable baseline. The baseline keeps climbing, which makes the model more valuable every year Congress doesn't act, not less.
January 16, 2026
At the time this video posted, Mamdani's affordability agenda was still proposals — tax increases on the wealthy, expanded benefits, a rent freeze that doesn't take effect until next year. Real commitments, but ones that require legislation, implementation timelines, and political fights still ahead. We laid out how PHIERS funds the same outcomes — affordability, relief, redirected savings — now, without waiting on any of that to pass.
What We Actually Said
Telehealth at $600 a year instead of roughly $8,000 for traditional coverage — for the large majority of people who don't need hospitalization or specialty care.
Non-profit prescription purchasing, the same model Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs proved works at scale, without markup or middlemen.
Savings redirected toward what constituents are actually asking for — affordability, transportation, housing — instead of disappearing into profit margins.
Why the Timing Matters
Mamdani's affordability agenda is real, and it's the right fight. But most of what it promises takes time to build — new housing, new transit infrastructure, new public systems take years to stand up, even with full political will behind them.
Congress can act on what we're proposing immediately. Telehealth reclassification and non-profit drug purchasing don't require new construction or new agencies — they require Congress to stop protecting the markup. That's a faster lever, sitting right alongside the longer-term work, not a replacement for it.
What we're not claiming
We're not claiming PHIERS can fund any single politician's entire platform, in New York or anywhere else. Savings at the scale we're describing depend on participation reaching real numbers first — they're not a blank check sitting somewhere waiting to be spent. What we are saying is that the mechanism is sound, it's documented years before the partnerships that have since validated pieces of it, and it's available to any city, county, or state serious about affordability now, not eventually.