CBO report on projected Medicare spending on obesity drugs could jeopardize coverage
by
Contributor since / Followers
Contributor since / Followers
1 month ago
designer491/iStock via Getty Images
- A new Congressional Budget Office report that found coverage of weight loss drugs would cost Medicare $35B from 2026 to 2034 could mean that those medicines are excluded.
- The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (H.R. 4818, S. 2407), currently winding its way through Congress, would permit CMS to cover weight loss drugs under Part D.
- The CBO report found that despite the large expenditure on treatments such as Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) Wegovy (semaglutide) and Eli Lilly’s (NYSE:LLY) Zepbound (tirzepatide), the benefit wouldn’t be that great as savings from improved health would be less than $50M in 2026 and $1B in 2034.
- TD Cowen Rick Weissenstein wrote that the CBO’s scoring would make it difficult for the legislation to get passed.
- “The House Ways & Means Committee measure that passed was stripped down so much that it’s hard to imagine it would have much of an effect on spending for” anti-obesity medications, he noted.