Cheap Ozempic? How millions of Americans with obesity may get access to costly weight-loss drugs

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Coverage through Medicaid, meanwhile, has varied from state to state.
57% : The nation's top health agency estimates as many as 3.5 million people on Medicare and 4 million on Medicaid could qualify for coverage of the drugs.
51% : It would benefit millions, but cost billionsThe rule announced Tuesday affects Medicaid, which provides health care coverage for roughly 70 million of the nation's poorest people, and Medicare, the health insurance program for about 67 million older Americans.
49% : It's not clear if Trump will support itThe drugs are popular -- with a majority of Americans telling health firm KFF in a poll earlier this year that Medicare should cover the drugs.
47% : But it's unclear if the proposal, which would not go into effect until after Trump takes office, will have support from his new administration -- including from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an opponent of the drugs whom the president-elect has tapped to serve as head of HHS.
47% : Under the proposal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, would reinterpret the federal law, to consider the drugs as a treatment for obesity diseases.
43% : But research suggests far more people might qualify, with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimating roughly 28 million people on Medicaid are considered obese.
40% : Rep. Brad Wenstrup, a Republican who sponsored a bill to have Medicare cover the weight-loss drugs, has argued that covering the drugs and other obesity treatments could save taxpayers in the long run.
39% : Medicare has been barred from covering them under a law that says the program cannot pay for weight-loss products.
38% : The rule, unveiled Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Department, would require Medicare and Medicaid to cover weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound for a large segment of Americans who are obese.
34% : Kennedy has railed against the idea of Medicare or Medicaid covering the drugs.
16% : Trump or Kennedy could ultimately ignore Biden's proposal and not implement it.

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