He Joe Biden government announced this Tuesday a proposal so that the United States public health massively expand the coverage of popular weight loss medications like Ozempic that have marked a before and after in the fight against obesity but whose high cost, more than $1,000 a month If you do not have insurance coverage in the US, it makes them prohibitive for many potential beneficiaries.
He future of that regulation, however, is in question. After a 60-day comment period It cannot be completed until the end of Januaryafter Donald Trump settle back into the White House, and his nominee for Secretary of Health, Robert Kennedy Jr., ha criticized the use of these drugs.
The rule
The regulatory proposal states that the public health care for seniors (Medicare) and for low-income people (Medicaid) pay for medications Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy, Zepbound, which, in addition to helping prevent diabetes and reducing the risks of death and heart attacks by up to 20%, have promoted a revolution in the fight against obesity, an achievement that made his ‘parents’ worthy of the latest Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific Research.
Currently Medicare only covers them when used for diabetes and heart problems. Some states do fund them through Medicaid to treat obesity, but they are the minority. And if the rule ends up being approved 3.4 million could benefit of people of the 53 million who have their medical coverage through Medicare y four million of the 72 million who get it Medicaid.
To carry out the proposal, which circumvents a federal law that prohibits allocating money to weight loss treatments, the Biden government has found a way to classify obesity as a “chronic disease according to medical consensus”. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionbetween 2021 and 2023 more than 40% of Americans over the age of 20 were obese and almost 74% were at least overweight. The obesity data are somewhat better than those recorded between 2017 and 2020, when the percentage of obese people reached 42%and it is estimated that the arrival of drugs on the market has played a role in the decline.
De Becerra a Kennedy
“It’s a good day to anyone who suffers from obesity”he told the AP agency current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xabier Becerra, that in that and other interviews he has assured that The rule represents “a radical change”. “It helps us recognize that obesity is part of our reality. It’s serious. It is damaging the health of our country. “It is damaging our economy,” he told ‘The Washington Post’.
It will be KennedyHowever, who, if confirmed by the Senate, will be in charge of Health when the proposal reaches its final phase of authorization and criticism that he has launched in the past towards these medications, of which he says that hide the root problems of obesity in the US, they raise doubts about whether he will support the measure.
Very always tough on the pharmaceutical industry, Kennedy said in an October interview with Fox News that “they are counting on selling to the Americans because “We are very stupid and very addicted to drugs.”. “It would be enough for us to give three meals a day of good foods to every man, woman and child in our country to immediately solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic“, then declared Kennedy, who assures that obesity must be combated by promoting healthy food, more exercise and other federal efforts.
In a round table with federal legislators at the beginning of the year, the Health nominee also said that “because of the half the price of Ozempic we could buy organic food produced by regenerative agriculture and livestock, three meals a day, and a gym membership for every obese American.
A hefty bill
He cost of the measure may be another of the challenges for the proposed rule to end up being approved. According to government calculations, the inclusion of drug coverage would add In the next decade more than $26 billion to Medicare bills (35 billion according to Congressional Budget Office estimates) and others 11,000 million to Medicaid.
These are figures that may influence the vision of Trump and the Republicans in the House on the measure. But both the president-elect and the congressmen must also value the popularity of the proposal. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, a 60% of Americans believe Medicare should cover drugs.
Kennedy moves in other directions. In an article published in September in ‘The Wall Street Journal’ he defended that impose price limits on what pharmaceutical companies charge for his medications. He gave Ozempic precisely as an example, highlighting that in Germany it costs a tenth of what it does in the US because Berlin, unlike Washington, has the authority to negotiate prices.
