The Bridge represents a long-overdue correction in Medicare’s priorities. Paying for the complications of obesity while refusing to cover some of the most effective treatments for the disease itself has never made medical or economic sense.
Medicare spends billions of dollars each year treating heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and other illnesses caused or worsened by obesity. Yet for decades, federal law has barred the program from covering medicines prescribed to treat obesity itself.
In other words, Medicare has been willing to pay for the costly consequences of excess weight—while refusing to pay for drugs that could address the underlying disease.
The Trump administration has finally begun to correct that contradiction.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
Medicare Pays Billions For Obesity’s Consequences. Its GLP-1 Bridge Offers A Better Way
Sally C. Pipes
The Bridge represents a long-overdue correction in Medicare’s priorities. Paying for the complications of obesity while refusing to cover some of the most effective treatments for the disease itself has never made medical or economic sense.
Medicare spends billions of dollars each year treating heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and other illnesses caused or worsened by obesity. Yet for decades, federal law has barred the program from covering medicines prescribed to treat obesity itself.
In other words, Medicare has been willing to pay for the costly consequences of excess weight—while refusing to pay for drugs that could address the underlying disease.
The Trump administration has finally begun to correct that contradiction.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.