{"id":18643,"date":"2024-12-19T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18643"},"modified":"2024-12-19T10:24:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T10:24:25","slug":"weight-loss-drugs-changed-their-lives-then-they-lost-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18643","title":{"rendered":"Weight Loss Drugs Changed Their Lives. Then They Lost Coverage."},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Michigan, the state\u2019s largest insurer has tightened restrictions around medications like Wegovy. Patients are panicking.<\/p>\n

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The letter came in June. Mindy McCormick, 67, read that her insurer would soon stop covering the weight loss drug Wegovy, which she had been taking for more than two years.<\/p>\n

What?<\/em> she remembers thinking. They\u2019re just going to take it away from me?<\/em><\/p>\n

She sent photos of the letter to her physician, Dr. Andrew Kraftson. His inbox was full of panicked emails from patients. Nearly 9,000 people across the state had received similar letters from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.<\/p>\n

Many of Dr. Kraftson\u2019s patients asked the same question as Ms. McCormick: \u201cWhat are we going to do now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past few months, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state\u2019s largest insurer, has scaled back on coverage of the weight-loss drugs Wegovy, Zepbound and Saxenda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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These drugs are life-changing \u2014 in some people\u2019s minds, lifesaving. But they can cost over $1,000 a month without insurance. The decision in Michigan reflects a shift underway nationwide, as insurers and employers pull back on paying for weight-loss drugs. This year, North Carolina<\/a> and West Virginia<\/a> have both restricted coverage for the medications for state employees. Some large private employers have also dropped coverage.<\/p>\n

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, like many other plans, will continue to cover similar drugs that treat people with diabetes, like Ozempic.<\/p>\n

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In Michigan, the state\u2019s largest insurer has tightened restrictions around medications like Wegovy. Patients are panicking.The letter came in June. Mindy McCormick, 67, read that her insurer would soon stop covering the weight loss drug Wegovy, which she had been taking for more than two years.What? she remembers thinking. They\u2019re just going to take it away from me?She sent photos of the letter to her physician, Dr. Andrew Kraftson. His inbox was full of panicked emails from patients. Nearly 9,000 people across the state had received similar letters from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.Many of Dr. Kraftson\u2019s patients asked the same question as Ms. McCormick: \u201cWhat are we going to do now?\u201dOver the past few months, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state\u2019s largest insurer, has scaled back on coverage of the weight-loss drugs Wegovy, Zepbound and Saxenda.These drugs are life-changing \u2014 in some people\u2019s minds, lifesaving. But they can cost over $1,000 a month without insurance. The decision in Michigan reflects a shift underway nationwide, as insurers and employers pull back on paying for weight-loss drugs. This year, North Carolina and West Virginia have both restricted coverage for the medications for state employees. Some large private employers have also dropped coverage.Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, like many other plans, will continue to cover similar drugs that treat people with diabetes, like Ozempic.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":18645,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643","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=18643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18646,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18643\/revisions\/18646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}