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Kiplinger
Kiplinger
Business
John Miley

Will Weight-Loss Drugs Spike Medicare Costs?: Kiplinger Economic Forecasts

medicine food (an apple) and fitness

To help you understand what is going on in the healthcare industry and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly-experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe). You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest...

The cost of new weight loss drugs will soon complicate federal finances. Though not covered by Medicare today, the odds are good that will change in the coming years. The estimated cost is $14 billion to $27 billion if a small portion of Medicare patients take treatments such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy for obesity. The estimate is on par with Aduhelm, the recently approved Alzheimer’s drug, which also threatens to seriously hike Medicare spending on prescription drugs. 

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