States Are Walking Back Medicaid Coverage for GLP-1s

[byefatlicia]

Opinion | States Are Walking Back Medicaid Coverage for GLP-1s

Obesity drugs are more than just 'weight loss' medications

www.medpagetoday.com

"It is hard to imagine an insurance company denying chemotherapy to treat cancer or insulin for type 1 diabetes, but insurance companies (public and private) routinely deny treatment for obesity."

If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...

I guess they opt for paying for the pound of cure. Pun intended

 

[AndyPanda]

GLPs for obesity are optional. I don’t want to pay for other people to be on these drugs when I’m already paying for myself to be on them.

 

[BooneDonk]

I hate to be the person, but GLPs for obesity are optional. I don’t want to pay for other people to be on these drugs when I’m already paying for myself to be on them.

We are paying for the treatments for obese people for the “problems” we are avoiding already by paying for them ourselves

Edit: one way or another we pay for those on these entitlements

 

[byefatlicia]

I don’t want to pay for other people to be on these drugs when I’m already paying for myself to be on them.

I couldn't agree more. My point is that "kicking the can down the road" costs more from the effects of obesity than the treatment of it. Especially if the states limit the greed of BP.

 

[yobculture]

I hate to be the person, but GLPs for obesity are optional. I don’t want to pay for other people to be on these drugs when I’m already paying for myself to be on them.

I love to be the person who is happy for my taxes to go toward helping people less fortunate than I am and to help them better their lives and be healthy. I don’t care that I'm paying for my own.

 

[indolent]

I think it's important that all payers (private insurance, public insurance, individuals) push back hard--including refusal--when bad players selectively overcharge. Ozempic costs insurance companies in the US >than $1,000 a month, while in France (as one example) the same company sells the same drug for an unsubsidized <$90 a month.

The insurance companies aren't primarily to blame, and the threat of future costs doesn't change the equation in the US any more than it does in France.

Ozempic is 1,300% more expensive in the U.S. vs the U.K.—so the boss of Novo Nordisk is being hauled in front of Bernie Sanders to explain why

Novo's Danish CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen will face the U.S. Senate in September to defend Wegovy's and Ozempic's eye-watering prices.

finance.yahoo.com

I love to be the person who is happy for my taxes to go toward helping people less fortunate than I am and to help them better their lives and be healthy. I don’t care that I'm paying for my own.

Are major Novo Norodisk shareholders less fortunate than you are? (Now they're crying because their extreme overvaluation got ahead of them, but still!)

 

[AndyPanda]

I love to be the person who is happy for my taxes to go toward helping people less fortunate than I am and to help them better their lives and be healthy. I don’t care that I'm paying for my own.

If they are on Medicaid it’s a pretty safe assumption that our taxes are probably paying to make the same people fat by allowing them to make poor choices and buy ultra processed foods and sugary beverages with food stamps. So, you are also happy to be hurting/enabling them?

 

[Jfrick11]

That’s an oversimplification that ignores both the reality of poverty and the actual data. SNAP and Medicaid exist to prevent worse outcomes—hunger, untreated illness, homelessness—not to “make people fat.” Processed food is cheap and accessible because of how our food system is structured, not because people on assistance want to harm themselves. If we care about health outcomes, the solution is making healthy food more affordable and accessible, not blaming people for surviving within the options they have.

If they are on Medicaid it’s a pretty safe assumption that our taxes are probably paying to make the same people fat by allowing them to make poor choices and buy ultra processed foods and sugary beverages with food stamps. So, you are also happy to be hurting/enabling them?

 

[yobculture]

That’s an oversimplification that ignores both the reality of poverty and the actual data. SNAP and Medicaid exist to prevent worse outcomes—hunger, untreated illness, homelessness—not to “make people fat.” Processed food is cheap and accessible because of how our food system is structured, not because people on assistance want to harm themselves. If we care about health outcomes, the solution is making healthy food more affordable and accessible, not blaming people for surviving within the options they have.

Agree. It’s a really gross generalization and it plays into stereotypes that I don’t even want to get into.

All I can say is that if it helps to save lives for GLP-1s to be covered by Medicade, I'm all for it. I would not want to be that person who didn’t want to help those in need.

 

[latviantower]

We’re all ignoring the fact that, despite political rhetoric and the incessant droning of the politicized media, health care (both access and affordability) is NOT a right in the USA. You may all believe that it is, or wish that it would be, but as of today it is not.

Kind of similar to how those “inalienable” rights of 250 years ago got morphed from “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to “life, liberty and the guarantee of happiness.”

 

[Morbius]

If they are on Medicaid it’s a pretty safe assumption that our taxes are probably paying to make the same people fat by allowing them to make poor choices and buy ultra processed foods and sugary beverages with food stamps. So, you are also happy to be hurting/enabling them?

Be careful what you assume.

I am an unemployed tech dude living in a million dollar house, trying to find a new job in my field, and I am on Medicaid because right now my income is zero dollars. Medicaid is helping me stay healthy and avoid bigger, more expensive medical problems by providing me with basic care and critical maintenance meds like a statin, which I need due to genetic issues.... Doesn't matter how good my diet is, I will have a bad lipid profile without intervention.

I have paid a shitload in taxes in my career and so I am taking this benefit as long as I can get it, without any regrets.

Not everyone on Medicaid is some kind of poor, ignorant, junk food and food stamps degenerate.

My degeneracy in other areas is profound, though.

 

[byefatlicia]

Great discussion! If only our 2 parties could exchange ideas this civilly.

I know, let's start a new party... the glp party. "Cutting fat and slimming down the government"

 

[peptideusername]

If they are on Medicaid it’s a pretty safe assumption that our taxes are probably paying to make the same people fat by allowing them to make poor choices and buy ultra processed foods and sugary beverages with food stamps. So, you are also happy to be hurting/enabling them?

What a terrible take. I can't figure out which is worse between the classism, fat shaming and stereotyping.

No matter, because I can assure you that blaming people for the purchases what they're legally allowed to make to buy the terrible food that food makers are also legally allowed to make is not the way to go.

Although exploiting legal loopholes is totally cool when it's for a tax break.

 

[AndyPanda]

That’s an oversimplification that ignores both the reality of poverty and the actual data. SNAP and Medicaid exist to prevent worse outcomes—hunger, untreated illness, homelessness—not to “make people fat.” Processed food is cheap and accessible because of how our food system is structured, not because people on assistance want to harm themselves. If we care about health outcomes, the solution is making healthy food more affordable and accessible, not blaming people for surviving within the options they have.

Wish I could agree with you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to the grocery store and seen people piling junk food on the conveyor and then paying with EBT. It’s easy to waste when it’s not your money. Meanwhile, I am budgeting and buying the healthiest food I can afford because I’m overtaxed.

 

[AndyPanda]

Be careful what you assume.

I am an unemployed tech dude living in a million dollar house, trying to find a new job in my field, and I am on Medicaid because right now my income is zero dollars. Medicaid is helping me stay healthy and avoid bigger, more expensive medical problems by providing me with basic care and critical maintenance meds like a statin, which I need due to genetic issues.... Doesn't matter how good my diet is, I will have a bad lipid profile without intervention.

I have paid a shitload in taxes in my career and so I am taking this benefit as long as I can get it, without any regrets.

Not everyone on Medicaid is some kind of poor, ignorant, junk food and food stamps degenerate.

My degeneracy in other areas is profound, though.

And your situation is exactly what these systems are for. Not our current 3rd and 4th generation welfare recipients. I have zero sympathy for people who choose to live entirely off of a system that is paid for by the working class.

 

[ZippityDooDah]

Be careful what you assume.

I am an unemployed tech dude living in a million dollar house, trying to find a new job in my field, and I am on Medicaid because right now my income is zero dollars. Medicaid is helping me stay healthy and avoid bigger, more expensive medical problems by providing me with basic care and critical maintenance meds like a statin, which I need due to genetic issues.... Doesn't matter how good my diet is, I will have a bad lipid profile without intervention.

I have paid a shitload in taxes in my career and so I am taking this benefit as long as I can get it, without any regrets.

Not everyone on Medicaid is some kind of poor, ignorant, junk food and food stamps degenerate.

My degeneracy in other areas is profound, though.

Well said.

I was in a similar position in the early 2000's after the dotcom bubble burst, going from being worth over 30 million (on paper, mostly equity in VC-funded startups that also collapsed spectacularly) to negative 5 million in a little over a year.

In 2004 while still picking up the pieces I had a golf ball sized pre-cancerous cyst removed that if not for Medicaid would have literally cost me my house.

I'm no fan of the current Medicaid system (or health insurance system in general which I have a nuanced way of distinguishing from the healthcare system), but assumptions about people receiving benefits from it are almost universally wrong.

It's all very messed up (avoiding the colorful language I really am thinking), and sadly something that will remain unsolved in my lifetime.

 

[AndyPanda]

What a terrible take. I can't figure out which is worse between the classism, fat shaming and stereotyping.

No matter, because I can assure you that blaming people for the purchases they're legally allowed to make to buy the terrible food that food makers are also legally allowed to make is not the way to go.

Although exploiting legal loopholes is totally cool when it's for a tax break.

Classism, because people should not live off of the government? Fat shaming, from someone who takes GLPs for their weight?

Stereotypes are earned. I guess you got me there.

As far as tax breaks, I’ll let you know when I get one. In my adult life I’ve never even received a return. I magically owe every year. Some of us give but don’t receive and we’re tired of it. Tired of driving on shitty roads that should be as smooth as silk for the amount of money we pay, but the money is being spent to keep people dependent on a crooked system. Tired of our hard earned money being wasted on people who are perfectly capable of doing everything that I do to survive.

Medicaid and welfare are meant to be temporary and help people in dire straits. Not to provide lifestyles.

Both sides of the political aisle are frauds. As previously stated, it’s easy spending other people’s money.

 

[ZippityDooDah]

And just a friendly reminder folks to please walk the fine line regarding political discussion carefully. This is one of those issues that I think are important to discuss in regard to GLP-1s and the benefits they offer to society, but still requires a fair amount of self-discipline to avoid becoming a political discussion/debate.

 

[AndyPanda]

And just a friendly reminder folks to please walk the fine line regarding political discussion carefully. This is one of those issues that I think are important to discuss in regard to GLP-1s and the benefits they offer to society, but still requires a fair amount of self-discipline to avoid becoming a political discussion/debate.

That’s fair. I will keep the rest of my opinions to myself. My mother used to tell me that opinions are like buttholes. Everybody has one and they all stink.

 

[Mimi2 8967]

There is a huge group that has been pushing for the defunding of Glp-1 medications by insurance companies and it’s not who you would think it is. They do not want their main source of “revenue” to be taken from them. Believe it or not, it’s the surgical community that takes care of the bariatric patients. Glp’s have taken a lot of their patients from them. Which has hit hospitals and surgical centers in their pockets BIG time. If you lose your weight with S/T/R or whatever combo…..would you still qualify for weight loss surgery? No. Think of all the patients who have turned to Glp’s for that 6month pre surgical weight loss program that has to be done prior and found success and didn’t need surgery. I work in the medical field and I’ve seen how hard it’s hit and they are pissed! But I’ve seen too many lives ruined by weight loss surgery and it’s about time there truly was another/better option! IMO