Biden proposes expanded Medicare, Medicaid coverage of obesity drugs

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

63% : Proposal expands coverage of drugs like Wegovy that treat obesity as a condition on its own*Would expand access for more than 7 mln people with Medicare, Medicaid coverage*New rule needs incoming Trump admin's support to go into effect(Adds details on whether Trump administration will support the rule in paragraphs 10-14 and on CBO cost estimate in paragraph 16)By Andrea Shalal and Patrick WingroveWASHINGTON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs, like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, for more than 7 million people with Medicare and Medicaid health coverage, which could cut out-of-pocket expenses for some by as much as 95%.
56% : The CMS estimates coverage will cost the federal government about $25 billion for Medicare and $11 billion for Medicaid over a decade.
50% : The proposed regulation, which was posted on the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday, would require Medicare to cover these drugs as a treatment for obesity, expanding access for an estimated 3.4 million Americans with Medicare.
49% : Biden's Inflation Reduction Act also required pharmaceutical companies to negotiate drug prices with Medicare, which covers 66 million people.
48% : "RFK Jr. has expressed skepticism of these drugs, but Dr. Oz has praised them," he said, referring to Trump's pick of television personality and surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
47% : "If they follow through with that as their policy position, it wouldn't seem to be in line with making a big push to get these products covered under Medicare," he said.
37% : During his first term in office, Trump had also sought to lower drug prices, but the measure was later blocked by a federal judge.
32% : Biden, a Democrat, has pushed hard to bring down the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs, such as by capping the cost of insulin at $35 for seniors receiving Medicare, and enacting a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for the same group.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.