WASHINGTON (news agencies) — New obesity drugs are showing promising results in helping some people shed pounds but the injections will remain out of reach for millions of older Americans because Medicare is forbidden to cover such medications.
Drugmakers and a wide-ranging and growing bipartisan coalition of lawmakers are gearing up to push for that to change next year.
As obesity rates rise among older adults, some lawmakers say the United States cannot afford to keep a decades-old law that prohibits Medicare from paying for new weight loss drugs, including Wegovy and Zepbound. But research shows the initial price tag of covering those drugs is so steep it could drain Medicare’s already shaky bank account.
A look at the debate around if — and how — Medicare should cover obesity drugs:
The Food and Drug Administration has in recent years approved a new class of weekly injectables, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, to treat obesity.
People can lose as much as 15% to 25% of their body weight on the drugs, which imitate the hormones that regulate appetites by communicating fullness between the gut and brain when people eat.
The cost of the drugs, beloved by celebrities, has largely limited them to the wealthy, A monthly supply of Wegovy rings up at $1,300 and Zepbound will put you out $1,000. Shortages for the drugs have also limited the supplies. Private insurers often do not cover the medications or place strict restrictions on who can access them.
Last month, a large, international study found a 20% reduced risk of serious heart problems such as heart attacks in patients who took Wegovy.
Long before Oprah Winfrey and TikTok influencers alike gushed about the benefits of these weight loss drugs, Congress made a rule: Medicare Part D, the health insurance plan for older Americans to get prescriptions, could not cover medications used to help gain or lose weight. Medicare will cover obesity screening and behavioral treatment if a person has body mass index over 30. People with BMIs over 30 are considered obese.
The rule was tacked onto legislation passed by Congress in 2003 that overhauled Medicare’s prescription drug benefits.
Lawmakers balked at paying high costs for drugs to treat a condition that was historically regarded as cosmetic. Safety problems in the 1990s with the anti-obesity treatment known as fen-phen, which had to be withdrawn from the market, were also fresh in their minds.
Medicaid, the state and federal partnership program for low-income people, does cover the drugs in some areas, but access is fragmented.
New studies are showing the drugs do more than help patients slim down.
Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, introduced legislation with Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., this year that would allow Medicare to cover the now-forbidden anti-obesity drugs, therapy, nutritionists and dieticians.
“For years there was a stigma against these people, then there was a stigma about talking about obesity,” Wenstrup said in an interview with media. “Now we’re in a place where we’re saying this is a health problem we need to deal with this.”
He believes the intervention could alleviate all sorts of ailments associated with obesity that cost the system money.
“The problem is so prevalent,” Wenstrup said. “People are starting to realize you have to take into consideration the savings that comes with better health.”
Last year, about 40% of the nearly 66 million people enrolled in Medicare had obesity. That roughly mirrors the larger U.S. population, where 42% of adults struggle with obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Notably, Medicare does cover certain surgical procedures to treat medical complications of obesity in people with a body mass index of 35 and at least one related condition. Congress approved the exception in 2006, noted Mark McClellan, a former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the FDA.
The 17-year-old law may provide a blueprint for expanding coverage of the new drugs, which mirror the results of bariatric surgery in some cases, McClellan said. Evidence showed that the surgery reduced the risks of death and serious illness from conditions related to obesity.
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