On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced plans to provide coverage for costly anti-obesity medications, including Wegovy and Zepbound, for Americans enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid.
Ozempic, the most commonly known weight-loss drug, was originally developed for Type-2 diabetes treatment. Wegovy is the same medication but dosed and administered solely for weight loss purposes. The two drugs, along with Zepbound, all work to reduce one’s appetite.
The proposed rule would make an estimated 4 million Medicaid recipients and 3.4 million Americans on Medicare eligible for the drug, which can retail for over $1000 per month without coverage.
However, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services by president-elect Donald Trump, hasn’t been so keen on weight loss drugs. Instead, he wants Americans to focus on their diets.
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What has RFK Jr. said about weight loss drugs?
Kennedy has taken a strong anti-Ozempic stance in his pledge to tackle high rates of chronic disease, including diabetes and obesity. And while these are goals shared by many health officials in America, his take stands out.
“If we just gave good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight,” he said to Greg Gutfeld on Fox News before the election. He added that Ozempic’s maker, Novo Nordisk, is “counting on selling it to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs,” and that Nordisk does not market the medicine in its home country of Denmark. Instead, “they recommend dietary and behavior changes,” he said.
However, Denmark does use Ozempic. In May, the Danish Medicines Agency said it would restrict access until people had tried less expensive medicines to treat diabetes.
In the same Fox News appearance, Kennedy said that the European Union was currently “investigating Ozempic for suicidal ideation,” but the European Medicines Agency had released a statement in April that there was no evidence suggesting that Ozempic and other GLP-1 medicines cause suicidal thoughts or actions. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also found no association, but is continuing to investigate the potential risks of GLP-1 drugs.
Kennedy focused on American’s food and diet during the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign. His messaging resonated with a large portion of voters, particularly mothers, who are worried about what’s going into their food.
Many of these moms have long been vocal online and in person, banding together to advocate against food dyes, for example. Some say they feel hindered by government agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration, when it comes to making healthy eating decisions for their kids.
“We are betraying our children by letting (food) industries poison them,” Kennedy said at a rally in November, after he had pulled out of the presidential election and backed Trump.
He hopes to eliminate food dyes, ultra-processed foods with added fats, starches and sugars, and improve school lunches.
Can RFK Jr. reverse the approval of weight loss drugs during the Trump administration?
The FDA is part of the Health and Human Services Department, but the secretary does not directly approve drugs. This would have to be initiated by the FDA on the grounds that the drug is not safe or effective.
Why does Biden want to cover weight loss drugs?
“This is a tremendous positive step on the part of the White House and CMS to ensure that Medicaid and Medicare enrollees, who often disproportionately face the brunt of obesity, will receive coverage for anti-obesity medications,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
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