On Losing Weight and Diet Pills.

[quintessentone]

Biden's new weight loss meds coverage program; some links and thoughts on that is welcome.

https://missouriindependent.com/2024/11/...-medicaid/

CBO projected it would cost the federal government $35 billion between 2026 and 2034 to cover anti-obesity medications for Medicare patients.
 
“Relative to the direct costs of the medications, total savings from beneficiaries’ improved health would be small—less than $50 million in 2026 and rising to $1.0 billion in 2034,” CBO wrote in the analysis.
 
The report explained that Medicare currently covers “some obesity-related services, including screening, behavioral counseling, and bariatric surgery (a procedure performed on the stomach or intestines to induce weight loss).”
 
While Medicare does cover anti-obesity medications for recipients with diabetes or cardiovascular disease, CBO wrote, Medicare “is prohibited by law from covering medications for weight management as part of the standard prescription drug benefit.”
 
The CBO report didn’t include a cost estimate for Medicaid, but noted that weight management drug coverage within that program is optional.
 
“According to one study, of the 47 states with publicly available lists of preferred drugs, nine had Medicaid programs that covered Wegovy in the first quarter of 2023.”

Wegovy used for the long term:  https://www.forhers.com/blog/long-term-e...-of-wegovy

Before we get into what might happen in rare cases, we’ve just got to say: Wegovy is generally considered a safe drug for most people. More research is needed into the long-term effects, but complications are rare, and for many, the benefits of taking Wegovy outweigh the risks.

My first thought is because of the high cost to the government, Trump and his admin. will not keep it in place. Trump and his admin. are suggesting they will give every man, woman and child three meals a day, but don't explain how they would implement such a program;  take away food stamps first?

Here is what was stated by Trump's admin.:

“If we spent about one-fifth of that giving good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight,” Kennedy said."

My second thought is that they are not predicting the money saved from less certain types of cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes treatments over the very long term as obesity seems to keep rising. Fact: Since the mid-1970s obesity in children age 2-19 rose triple the rate during 2017-2020, this and severe obesity among women has also increased needs to be taken into account as well when crunching the numbers.
 

“Relative to the direct costs of the medications, total savings from beneficiaries’ improved health would be small—less than $50 million in 2026 and rising to $1.0 billion in 2034,” CBO wrote in the analysis.

From 2026 to 2034 is only an 8-year gap and that is a 5% increase in savings, but what is not included here is the obesity numbers which seem to always be climbing up. https://usafacts.org/articles/obesity-ra...-50-years/

As I noted above there was a 19.7% increase in obesity among children and an increase of severe obesity among women...all those numbers need to added and a projected savings from using anti-obesity drugs along with the already-covered counselling, bariatric surgery and other treatments.
 

State data suggests that just over a third of Americans are currently obese. However, nationwide data shows that this could be an underestimation.
 

Sorry for posting a long-winded post, but these complicated issues need to be looked at from many different directions. It's not all about money, but if the Trump admin. is all about money then they need to also look at projected savings over the near future because obesity and associated diseases arising from same are only increasing and so will the savings. Does that sound logical? What say you DI?