{"id":12137,"date":"2024-08-30T09:03:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T09:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=12137"},"modified":"2024-08-30T09:24:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T09:24:58","slug":"the-state-that-chose-to-cover-obesity-drugs-for-its-poor-but-not-its-own-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=12137","title":{"rendered":"The State That Chose to Cover Obesity Drugs for Its Poor, but Not Its Own Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The widespread use and enormous expense of blockbuster drugs like Wegovy are forcing state governments to make painful choices.<\/p>\n

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This month, North Carolina did something enthusiastically that most states have been reluctant to try: It started covering new obesity medicines like Wegovy for its poorest residents as part of its Medicaid program.<\/p>\n

For Kody Kinsley, the state\u2019s health and human services secretary, the choice was easy. Those poor residents are disproportionately affected by obesity and its related diseases. \u201cFrom a base-line justice perspective,\u201d he said, \u201cwhy are we even talking about it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason many people are talking about it is the price tag. Expensive drugs are nothing new in the U.S. health system, but these are an unprecedented type of blockbuster because so many people could benefit: More than a third of American adults meet the clinical definition of obesity. The combination of high prices and high demand is forcing every insurer, public and private, to make tough decisions.<\/p>\n

Just this spring, the North Carolina state employees\u2019 health plan dropped coverage<\/a> of the same class of drugs, citing unsustainable costs, ending coverage for nearly 25,000 people who were taking them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That means the civil-service administrators who will be helping the state\u2019s poorest residents get access to Wegovy and its siblings have lost their own employer coverage for the very same drugs.<\/p>\n

The costs of the drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, can add up quickly. Novo Nordisk\u2019s Wegovy and Eli Lilly\u2019s Zepbound \u2014 the two GLP-1 drugs that have been approved specifically for weight loss \u2014 each come with a sticker price over $1,200 a month, and need to be taken long-term for sustained effect. (Ozempic has the same active ingredient as Wegovy, but has been approved <\/span>for diabetes.)<\/p>\n

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The widespread use and enormous expense of blockbuster drugs like Wegovy are forcing state governments to make painful choices.This month, North Carolina did something enthusiastically that most states have been reluctant to try: It started covering new obesity medicines like Wegovy for its poorest residents as part of its Medicaid program.For Kody Kinsley, the state\u2019s health and human services secretary, the choice was easy. Those poor residents are disproportionately affected by obesity and its related diseases. \u201cFrom a base-line justice perspective,\u201d he said, \u201cwhy are we even talking about it?\u201dThe reason many people are talking about it is the price tag. Expensive drugs are nothing new in the U.S. health system, but these are an unprecedented type of blockbuster because so many people could benefit: More than a third of American adults meet the clinical definition of obesity. The combination of high prices and high demand is forcing every insurer, public and private, to make tough decisions.Just this spring, the North Carolina state employees\u2019 health plan dropped coverage of the same class of drugs, citing unsustainable costs, ending coverage for nearly 25,000 people who were taking them.That means the civil-service administrators who will be helping the state\u2019s poorest residents get access to Wegovy and its siblings have lost their own employer coverage for the very same drugs.The costs of the drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, can add up quickly. Novo Nordisk\u2019s Wegovy and Eli Lilly\u2019s Zepbound \u2014 the two GLP-1 drugs that have been approved specifically for weight loss \u2014 each come with a sticker price over $1,200 a month, and need to be taken long-term for sustained effect. (Ozempic has the same active ingredient as Wegovy, but has been approved for diabetes.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12139,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12137"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12140,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12137\/revisions\/12140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}