WASHINGTON — Drugmakers are doing everything to tap the bottomless well of demand for new obesity drugs, and they might get some government help. The agency that regulates Obamacare insurance is considering a technical change that would require insurers to cover obesity drugs in a market of more than 20 million Americans.
Weight loss drugs are a blessing for patients, a boon for drugmakers, and a potentially huge expense for insurers and taxpayers. Insurers have been slow to cover the drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, and without insurance, it costs upward of $16,000 annually for a drug that must be taken indefinitely.
There is a lot of demand for the drugs, but there are barriers to coverage. Medicare by law is prohibited from paying for obesity drugs. State Medicaid programs don’t have to cover them, so most don’t.