Weight Loss Medicines can set a collision between RFK JR and assistants

As a weight management doctor, Molly Cecil has seen firsthand how the latest weight loss drugs help his patients.

She also knows from personal experience: after a year of medicine, the West Virginia doctor lost 40 pounds. Her cholesterol and arthritis improved, allowing her to be more active with her young children.

“I just felt like a new person to them,” she said.

But she was worried about the same obstacle that many patients face – loss of insurance coverage – so she reduced the medicines as a precaution.

It turned out to be right. Later, D -C Cecil learned his new insurance plan for a non -profit purpose He cannot afford to cover the price of medicines.

She gradually won the bigger part of the weight she lost.

The latest class of weight loss drugs-also known as GLP-1 agonists-the most powerful weight loss medicines we have ever had, “said Dr. Cecil.

“But when I can't make them (my patients), as a doctor who is really interested in taking care of people … She just feels helpless,” she said.

The new drug class – often not covered by private insurance – can cost an average of $ 1,000 (809 British pounds) a month. Federal law prohibits Medicare from covering drugs when used for Weight loss, although usually covered when used to treat diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Only 13 countries provide Medicaid coverage for weight loss purposes.

To make them more accessible, then President Joe Biden recently suggested that Medicare and Medicaid cover them, but now it will depend on President Donald Trump's new administration.

His weight loss policy will fall for the choice of Trump as a secretary of health, Robert F Kennedy, Jr. and Mehmet Oz, the choice of Trump to lead Medicare and Medicaid Services. But it can mean a potential clash: Kennedy is a vocal critic of weight loss drugs while Oz is a flaming defender.

The Trump administration did not answer a request for a comment on how it would handle the proposal of the Biden Administration for Medicare – Federal Insurance for these 65 years and more – and Medicaid – state insurance for low -income people – to cover drugs.

Trump's future approach remains unclear, with several people in his inner circle having controversial views, said Jonathan Gian, a professor at the school for public policy at the University of Duke.

“GLP-1, ozmpic, this is a medicine that has so much demand for patients,” said Mr. Gian. “This is indeed taken for their own lives on social media. So the Trump administration – or every administration – faces a lot of pressure to do something about it in the near future.”

During his presidential start last year, Kennedy tackled the epidemic of obesity in a central part of his platform. More than 100 million people in the United States have been obese, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

After dropping out and supporting Trump, Kennedy launched her initiative, “Make America healthy again” to reduce obesity, eliminating ultra-processed foods and additives, among other more diligent ideas.

But the 71-year-old is honest with weight loss drugs, telling Fox News in October: “They rely on the sale (weight loss medicines) to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”

“If we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could resolve the epidemic of obesity and diabetes overnight,” Kennedy added.

Shortly after Trump chose Kennedy to lead the Ministry of Health and Human Services (HHS), he announced that he had chosen Oz, a former presenter of a television show and a surgeon to run the Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) centers, the HHS agency, which that administers government health insurance.

As a presenter on a television show, Oz spent years promoting various medicines for weight loss, including rather GLP-1 medicines.

“For those who want to lose a few pounds, ostempic and other semi -glutated medicines can be a great help,” PD published on Instagram in 2023 “We need to make people as easy as possible for their health goals.”

Medicare and Medicaid drugs are likely to include leaders from both HHS and CMS, experts said.

Oz and Kennedy speakers did not respond to requests to comment on how they would deal with the political decision. None of them has yet been confirmed to their appointments.

The high cost of GLP -1 drugs that are patented – which means that the cheaper versions of Copycat cannot be made – it has led to a debate among insurance companies, said Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School.

Companies have to decide whether to raise insurance premiums, in general, cover the costs or give up GLP-1 coverage, he said.

Many have decided not to cover them. Others interrupted the patient's coverage after they have weakened and reached the body mass index (BMI) below the 30 or higher obesity range, said Dr. Cecil.

When Dr. Cecil was on GLP-1 using her previous insurance, she said she would not afford to lose as much weight as she wanted to avoid intersection of the threshold of the BMI.

“They will cut the coating, saying,” Well, you no longer need it. You lost weight. “But of course, the reason for weakening is because of the medicine,” she said.

Obesity drugs can also lead to unpleasant effects of withdrawal too quickly and many can lift weight.

Government insurance faces such a difficulty of costs when it comes to covering new weight loss medicines.

“Although obviously there is a lot of interest in making these highly effective drugs more accessible to patients who need them, the cost of making would be huge because so many people are eligible and because prices are so high” Dr. Rome said.

When Biden employees issued the rule requiring Medicare and Medicaid to cover the medicines to combat obesity, they did it after the election, knowing that they would not depend on them to pursue the policy, said Mark Fendrick, director of the Michigan Michigan Center for Insurance Based design.

The federal government said last year it could cost about $ 25 billion for Medicare and $ 11 billion for Medicaid to provide medicines over the next 10 years.

“How do we pay for that?” asked D -R Fandrick.

The rule of the Biden era must go through a period of public comments before the Trump administration eventually decides whether to move on with it, experts said.

DC Cecil stated that the government and private insurance companies may remain tremendable to take the account of such expensive medicines.

But she believes that the savings that will come from dealing with obesity for millions of Americans would exceed short -term costs.

“It's five to ten years, when we really see a huge payout, because then we will really start to see a trend down for some of these more serious long -term complications,” said Dr. Cecil.

“If anyone who needs drugs can afford them and wants to take them, it will be a lot of change in the game.”