2024-10-21
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Biden Administration Proposes Medicare Coverage for Diet Pills, Trump Team May Be Biggest Roadblock
Release Time: 2024-12-11
News Source: Financial News Agency
Author: SENOVA—Lucas
On November 26, the White House announced on its official website that the Biden-Harris administration is proposing to expand Medicare and Medicaid coverage for popular weight-loss drugs.The White House press release did not mention the specific names of the drugs, but it is known that they refer primarily to Novo Nordisk's semaglutide and Eli Lilly's tirzepatide.An estimated 42 percent of the U.S. population suffers from obesity - now widely recognized as a chronic disease that increases the risk of all-cause mortality and a variety of related complications, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and certain cancers, the press release reads.
The White House says these diet pills could help prevent the development of type 2 diabetes and reduce death and morbidity from heart disease and other cardiovascular conditions by as much as 20 percent, but for most Americans, these critical treatments are too expensive and therefore unaffordable.“Without insurance, these drugs can cost as much as $1,000 per month.” In addition to enrolling drugs in insurance, the White House plans to reduce drug costs, including launching a program of negotiating drug prices and increasing competition in the marketplace.Market data show that Novo Nordisk's simethicone injection for long-term weight management, Wegovy, costs about $1,300 per month in the U.S.; Eli Lilly's telbivudine injection, Zepbound, costs $1,000. Lilly's Zepbound injection also costs up to $1,000.
Media analysis says the Biden administration's new proposals could cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $35 billion more over the next decade, and that the Trump administration, which takes office next year, will likely block the measures.Two weeks ago, President-elect Trump chose Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Not only is Kennedy Jr. a well-known anti-vaccine advocate, but he is also a staunch opponent of diet drugs.
Prior to Trump's victory, Kennedy Jr. posted a short video on Instagram talking about “Ozempic,” the sister drug to Novozymes, “which they (drug companies)are counting on to sell to Americans because we're so stupid and we're so addicted to the the drug.”At the time, Kennedy Jr. pointed out that NovoTech would not “restore health to America,” and that even in Denmark, where Novo Nordisk is headquartered, “the drug is not recommended for the treatment of diabetes and obesity; they recommend changes in diet and lifestyle habits.”Kennedy Jr. has long argued that the U.S. needs to curb the obesity epidemic by reducing the amount of processed foods high in sugar, fat and additives in the nation's diet, and he has complained that what Trump eats is “terrible.”
Earlier in the year, Kennedy Jr. told federal lawmakers at a roundtable, “For half the price of NovoTech, we could buy Americans organic food produced by regenerative farming methods and provide every obese American with three meals a day and a gym membership.”
