Posted on 05/22/2024 11:46:24 AM PDT by DallasBiff
State and local governments across the US are grappling with a growing problem: Expensive drugs to treat diabetes and obesity are threatening to drain their health-care budgets.
State health plans and Medicaid offices are seeing eye-popping bills for Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic, its sister drug Wegovy and similar medications known as GLP-1s. They’re a breakthrough for treating two of the most complex chronic health conditions. But with list prices stretching above $1,000 a month, the costs threaten to empty government coffers.
“It’s not sustainable,” North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell, who oversees state workers’ health insurance, lamented at a recent board meeting. “It’ll sink the plan.”
He isn’t the only official warning about the exploding costs. Connecticut imposed new hurdles for state employees seeking weight-loss treatment in July, after spending on the drugs rose 50% annually since 2020. Virginia tightened criteria for Medicaid enrollees seeking GLP-1s to treat obesity in June. An official in Delaware warned of a surge in Medicaid claims for the drugs since March and said the state may need to implement cost controls.
(Excerpt) Read more at spokesman.com ...
Different people have different needs. My hub and I went thru Bio-energy testing...one result...the doc said my hub could pretty much eat all the carbs he wanted...doc told Me...limit to 35g a day...which I do not, but have found ways to cut back (who knew my cashews and mortnmoncy cherries I had with morning coffee had so many carbs?...dropped @ 3 lbs just quitting those)
I just searched for those cherries. I learned something new. I had never heard that name. Thanks.
Costco...they are addictive
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