Medicare proposes covering weight-loss drugs, teeing up clash with RFK Jr. - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : The Biden administration's proposal was crafted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is scheduled to be issued at 8:45 a.m. in the Federal Register.
48% : While the rules were written for the Medicare program, which covers older Americans, the new interpretation of weight-loss drugs also applies to Medicaid, which covers low-income Americans.
47% : Becerra said the proposal would expand coverage of antiobesity drugs to 7.5 million people enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, which his agency projected would add $25 billion in Medicare costs and $11 billion in Medicaid costs during the next decade.
46% : Under current rules, Medicare does not cover weight-loss medication, although many beneficiaries receive drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy to treat diabetes and heart disease, conditions that can be exacerbated by obesity.
46% : The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency, last month concluded that expanding coverage to antiobesity drugs would cost Medicare an additional $35 billion between 2026 and 2034 - a figure higher than what the Biden administration estimates.
45% : Becerra said the additional costs represented a modest fraction of the forecasted spending for Medicare, citing estimates that the program is expected to spend more than $2 trillion on drugs across the next decade.
44% : Six in 10 adults believe that Medicare should cover the drugs for weight loss, with Democrats somewhat more likely than Republicans to be in favor, according to a poll released in May by KFF, a nonpartisan health-care research organization.
41% : Biden officials seeking to finalize their weight-loss proposal may find an ally in Mehmet Oz, the TV personality and cardiothoracic surgeon whom Trump last week tapped to lead CMS.
34% : Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - whom Trump has selected to be the next HHS secretary, if confirmed by the Senate - is an avowed critic of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic, which he has blamed for obfuscating the root causes of poor health in America.

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