Should Congress mandate Medicaid /Medicare/VA to cover weight loss Rxs like GLP1’s? Should ROI be a considered? Subsidies for private plans even?

[DrPepper12]

No. Put the donut down fatty & go for a walk! I'm not paying for it!

Yes. Medicaid (poor, disabled, kids) ONLY

Yes. Medicare (old people) ONLY

Yes. VA (vets) ONLY

Some combination. I'll explain...

Yes. ALL should cover it!

[RavVid]

I won't respond on the political side of this question but Australians live 4 years older than Americans and I think your ROI point is significant.

Free market works well for TV's and cars but it doesn't work in the medical fields. You, as an individual, have no ability to bargain with big pharma.

Our gov't negotiates on our behalf and puts out supplying drugs to tender. So just about any prescription will cost us about $5 to fill.

New drugs like GLP1's take a little while to come into the subsidized system but not that long. They will become available to us at $5 a script if a doctor considers it is justified for us.

It is more ideal if people just eat sensibly but the ROI cannot be ignored.

[OneViewpoint]

NO! We have a Capitalism problem with the food supply and nutrition in this country. Don't pay for drugs so people can avoid accountability for their bad choices. Fix the nutrition and exercise problem. Drugs come with side effects and dependency. Eating healthy and exercise come with positive lifetime habits.

[DrPepper12]

Then why are we not sin taxing processed foods & subsidizing gym memberships?

[OneViewpoint]

Well the processed food industry is a large part of the problem. That’s exactly where I’d start. Fuck small govamint.

Gym memberships? I Beverly had a gym membership as a kid. I had a football, basketball, baseball glove and bar, a pair of sneakers, and parents who told me to go find some neighborhood kids to play with. I was out from breakfast til dinner time.

Also, you don’t need a gym membership for body weight exercises. And you can do a lot with body weight only.

A walk or a run costs nothing.

Government can’t be expected to save idiots from themselves.

[msc545]

Some people cannot lose weight no matter how much they exercise because of metabolic problems. Apparently, this is something you don't understand or don't care about. GLP-1 drugs can be expensive, but they are coming down in cost. If you think they cost too much, blame the drug companies, don't blame people for not doing things they can't do. Hello.

[OneViewpoint]

@msc545 ,

And how many people actually have some metabolic problem vs a PhD in bad nutrition, zero willpower, and laziness?

First clamp down on the processed food industry and the fast food industry. Profits should not be as easy as marketing boxes of Salt, Sugar, and Fat to children or advertising Biggie Sized McBloated Meals for 59 cents extra.

Second mandate that all the blobs who buy Fitbits actually use them for something other than bling. Kids already get K-12 physical fitness exposure from govamint. Time for mom and dad Couch Blob to start giving a shit about their own progeny. If they do not, their kids are gonna have shitty lives. Not my problem.

[msc545]

It's really easy to be judgmental about people if you don't have a problem. I personally do not have a problem but I have many patients who do. I don't know how many people have metabolic problems or not, but I do know that losing weight in whatever way it's possible is life saving for many people despite your judgmental opinions about it. Your bitterness and anger regarding this issue suggests to me that you probably have this sort of problem yourself and maybe haven't found a good way of coping with it.

[msc545]

I don't have a weight problem but I personally use a glp one drug for type 2 diabetes. That drug has saved my life and is essentially reversed my diabetes to the point that at at least on blood testing. You literally cannot tell that I have diabetes. The drug I use is expensive but not overly so probably not nearly as expensive as all the medical care that I would need if I wasn't using it. I can afford the drug myself without any trouble, but for people who can't, it turns out that the drug company has a foundation and will donate the drug to people for free or at extremely well cost. Yes of course they get a tax write-off from this but they are a company with a social conscience which is probably foreign to you. There are ways of doing these kinds of things without just beating on people as you seem to want to do.

[OneViewpoint]

@msc545 ,

You're a moron attempting to project your own problems onto me. Sorry to disappoint but no, I have never been overweight and always been fit. 6'2" and 207 lbs about 8 lbs heavier than the day I graduated university and entered the US Army as a commissioned officer almost 40 years ago. I have zero health problems and have always maintained excellent nutritional and exercise discipline.

I'm thinking between this and your comments about not being able to feed yourself like an adult man, you are wallowing in an ocean of personal problems centered around motivation, discipline, and an allergy to hard work. Once again, not my problem Ace.

[DrPepper12]

Maybe we should all take health advice from Dear Leader...

[OneViewpoint]

Mickey D's and Coke all day every day. Exercise will only eat up your fixed number of heartbeats, LOL. Morbid Obesity = Perfect Health.

[msc545]

@OneViewpoint I see you have resorted to name-calling and insults. I guess something I said hit that nerve of truth, right?

Not my problem, asshole.

[OneViewpoint]

@msc545 ,

Right back at you weakling.

[Amy10223]

Congress doesn't even want to cover the basics of Medicaid and Medicare, or the VA benefits which were all cut down--let alone the above. No, they will not. The poor in the country will suffer both in their costs and prescription plans as well.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Obesity is driving up the cost of healthcare for everyone. Why is health insurance so expensive? The answer is Obesity.

[loveslongnails]

Big pharma is in the business of keeping you ill, and the government is in the pocket of Big Pharma in part. So, the government has no interest in helping obese people lose weight or the average American to be healthy. They won't even pay for school lunches for impoverished kids, so what do they care?

Now keep in mind when I say "government" right now, I mean primarily the Trump regime and the P-2025 Conservative CN's. They're the ones running the show. If the DEMS were in charge, you'd have free school lunches for kids and subsidized health care premiums at the very least. They're no angels either, but at worst, you'd have that.

[Anonymous]

Only as a prior authorization when all other attempts of weight loss has failed. We should not be fixing our obesity problem with a quick fix drug. We need to encourage more exercise and better eating habits and we need to work on making our food more healthy and nutritious, So much of our food has added sugar and HFCS that shouldn't have sugar. These programs needs to be expanded to include coverage for gym memberships and to go a step further, SNAP needs to expanded to include extra benefits that can only be used to buy healthy foods. Essentially GLP1s should only be approved as a last resort when all else fails.

[msc545]

You don't understand the glp1 drugs do a lot more than cause weight loss. They are also protective of your heart and kidneys and most importantly they control type 2 diabetes. Arguably these effects are at least as important, if not more important than the weight loss. I think the other effects make them important for everyone. Or nearly everyone. And yes, Congress should mandate them but but of course it won't. Guns and bombs are far more important, right?

[DrPepper12]

Correctamundo as usual!!

[msc545]

Thanks doc.

[OneViewpoint]

@msc545,

The question was drugs for weight loss Ace. Not diabetes. And how many of those type 2 diabetes patients are on the drug because of lifestyle choices that span decades? What about smokers and alcoholics? Should we enable them too?

But of late, those GLP1 drugs developed for diabetes have been being scooped up by millions of slobs unwilling to put in the work to lose weight and reaching for an easy fix with drugs. That takes away the supply for patients with legitimate medical issues. And you want taxpayers to fund this? Sorry, no.

[DrPepper12]

@OneViewpoint Your local fire department presumes job related cancer no matter how much they smoke. Guess that's ok.

Those alcoholics generate tax $ for benefits they'll never see but that's ok

Guess those cancer patients are absconding with all the radiation taking all the UV from deserving models too...

[msc545]

@oneviewpoint diabetes is caused by genetics, not by those lifestyle choices you keep whining about. I know you want to blame people for this kind of stuff, including getting diabetes, but that just isn't the way the science works. Additionally, glp one drugs were specifically developed for diabetes and are used primarily for diabetes because they are extremely effective against that disease. I speak from personal experience regarding this. The fact that they cause weight loss is only a secondary effect which is very beneficial but isn't the primary use of these drugs. The weight loss also turns out to be beneficial since obesity causes substantial cardio for the vascular and metabolic problems on top of being unattractive. I realize you'd think that nobody should get anything of any value unless they work their ass off for it and kiss your ass for it. But that's not the way this works..

[Curmudgeon]

I do know that many health insurance plans WILL cover bariatric / gastric surgery. (Any cosmetic procedures after that are not covered of course, but they WILL cover that). I know diagnosed obese people who have taken their insurers up on the offer.

[Curmudgeon]

And for said insurers, it may likely be a cost vs. benefit analysis, that is, the stomach stapling or banding or what have you, however costly it may be at first, will save the insurer from paying out for lots of other medical procedures down the road of life.

[BonzoInBitburg]

Stricter food standards would be ideal but GLP1s are amazing. I started on it and it's a game changer. It is expensive but totally worth it. Peptides are the fountain of youth.

[exitseven]

no, people need ot take responsibility for their own weight, besided in a few short year we will be paying for all the side effects people will be suffering from from being on these drugs long term

[DrPepper12]

Doubt that.

[exitseven]

nobody knows the long term effects of these drugs. People have to continue taking them or else they will get fat again. It is a dream come true for drug companies but when your dick comes off in your hand all of a sudden people will be angry.

[Sal_Monella]

In a rare non-conservative opinion, yes. It should be regulated. That can reduce other medical issues that cost taxpayers zillions.

[Likes2drive]

Maybe for old people using Medicare

[msc545]

You do not have to be old to be overweight, and you do not have to be old to have type 2 diabetes.

[Likes2drive]

@msc545 I didn’t mean it in that way, I just meant if you’re old enough to be on Medicare that you probably don’t have the money for that cost anymore when retired but I know you can have diabetes at any age

[chrissykerdock]

no mandates

[DrPepper12]

But it's a INSANE ROI for each dollar spent! It's an investment opportunity tbh.