Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and medical companies are set to square off immediately as a result of President Joe Biden’s plan to handle diabetes medications for weight loss under national insurance programs.
Early Tuesday morning, the Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS) unveiled the proposed rule to subsidize the popular medications.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra called government coverage” a game changer for Americans who ca n’t afford these drugs otherwise,” declaring that “everyone who suffers from obesity” is happy.
According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ), more than 40 percent of U. S. adults age 20 and older are obese, and nearly 74 percent are at minimum, overweight.
According to the AP, taxpayers would pay up to$ 35 billion over ten years for federal coverage of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
” Under the plan, only those who are considered fat — someone who has a body mass index of 30 or higher — may qualify for coverage”, the AP reported. If someone has insulin or is at risk for a stroke or heart disease, they may already be covered by Medicare or Medicaid.
Kennedy, who was nominated to remove Becerra by President-elect Donald Trump, will have to review the new law if confirmed in the new leadership. Only one month ago, however, Trump’s prospective new HHS key slammed the latest class of weight-loss medication as something of a false promise.
Just two weeks before the election, Kennedy said on Fox News,” 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 continued,” We are so terrible and so dependent on drugs that we are counting on selling it to Americans.”
The medicines themselves, however, come with significant risks. Ozempic ‘s , site lists nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea as possible part effects. The treatment has even reportedly led to a , rise in emergency room visits with clients suffering blurred vision, gastritis, hunger, and drooping eyes. There’s also a term to describe the first:” Ozempic Experience”.
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However, the American Academy of Pediatrics ( AAP ) released new guidelines last year that suggested the use of the medications to combat childhood obesity. According to the CDC, about 1 in 5 children and adolescents aged 2-19 are absolutely unhealthy, coinciding with a boom in childhood illness.
” A ill child”, Kennedy said in his August confirmation statement of President Trump, “is the best thing for the medical industry. They are prescribed medication for the rest of their lives when British children or adults become chronically ill.
Pharmaceutical activists are likely to lobby against Kennedy’s assurance in the coming year due to his antipathy toward the drug companies. Members of the Senate Finance Committee, whom will be the first to vote on Kennedy’s election, have raked in nearly$ 7 million from the pharmaceutical industry over the past half decade, according to a Federalist study.
Kennedy also wants congressional representatives to” cap drug prices so that American consumers ca n’t pay significantly more than Europeans do,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal in September.
” Today in Germany”, Kenney said,” Ozempic costs less than a tenth of what it does in the U. S. because while Berlin negotiates prices on behalf of all Germans, Washington ca n’t do the same”.
