Research
Energy balance
The marginal costs of Medicare coverage for anti-obesity drugs could decrease by up to 62.5% if products are approved for additional indications.
Practitioners should consider the potential for reduced costs if additional indications for anti-obesity drugs are approved.
StrongSupportsmedium confidence
The marginal costs of this policy could fall by as much as 62.5 percent from baseline estimates if products were approved for additional indications in coming years.
Why this rating
The claim is based on an analysis of potential cost changes.
Source
Expanding Medicare Coverage Of Anti-Obesity Medicines Could Increase Annual Spending By $3.1 Billion To $6.1 Billion
Benedic Ippolito et al. · Health Affairs · 2024
DOI 10.1377/hlthaff.2024.00356
otherCited 12×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Allowing Medicare coverage of anti-obesity medications could increase annual Part D costs by $3.1 billion or $6.1 billion depending on the percentage of newly eligible patients prescribed the drugs.Strong
- The policy change of covering anti-obesity medications is likely to increase Medicare costs by low to middle tens of billions of dollars over ten years.Strong
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- Achieving type 2 diabetes remission requires significant weight loss (≥15 kg) via major caloric restriction, independent of macronutrient composition.Strong
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