Trump Officials Plan Coverage For Weight Loss Drugs Under Medicare And Medicaid

The Trump administration is readying a aviator programme to screen “miracle” weight nonaccomplishment narcotics nether nan authorities wellness security systems for low-income group and retirees, Medicaid and Medicare, successful a move aimed astatine tackling nan US’s chronic obesity problem.

Such a scheme was previously proposed by nan Biden management successful its last months earlier Donald Trump re-entered nan White House aft winning a 2nd word successful agency successful nan 2024 election.

Now nan Trump management intends a five-year research wherever nan Medicaid programme and Medicare supplier sum plans will person nan action of covering nan costs of narcotics trading nether nan names Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound for “weight management” purposes, nan Washington Post reported connected Friday morning, citing documents from nan government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

This type of medication, known arsenic GLP-1 drugs and primitively developed to dainty type 2 diabetes, person gained fame for their expertise to trim assemblage weight by suppressing appetite and slowing digestion.

But their high cost, typically betwixt $5,000 and $7,000 per year, has raised concerns astir semipermanent affordability and specified a scheme now nether information by Donald Trump would travel astatine a hefty costs to nan nationalist purse.

Insurance sum for specified narcotics is presently typically approved erstwhile patients person different conditions that are often tied to obesity, specified arsenic diabetes, bosom illness and cancer.

The caller projected scheme would licence authorities Medicaid programs and Medicare Part D security plans to voluntarily screen GLP-1 drugs, including those from marketplace leaders Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, nan study said.

Lilly and Novo are leaders successful nan weight-loss supplier market, which immoderate analysts expect could bring successful much than $150bn successful gross by nan adjacent decade. Lilly’s shares were up astir 2% successful premarket trading connected Friday.

The inaugural is slated to statesman successful April 2026 for Medicaid and January 2027 for Medicare. If it clears nan way, it would people a displacement successful national argumentation aft nan management said earlier this twelvemonth that nan programs would not screen weight nonaccomplishment drugs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Lilly and Novo did not respond to Reuters’ petition for comment.

The scheme could expose division betwixt CMS caput Mehmet Oz, who has antecedently praised specified drugs, and wellness caput Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has criticized their precocious costs and really they are not a substitute for a patient lifestyle.