Opinion: Extending Medicare coverage to obesity medications is imperative

Although bipartisan legislation to provide Medicare coverage for obesity treatments has circulated in Congress for more than a decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) ventured to estimate the budgetary effects of such a policy for older Americans starting in 2026 for the very first time in a report published in October. 

The CBO should be commended for conducting this comprehensive analysis. But we are the first to admit that there’s still a long way to go before this change happens. Medicare, by statute, is still prohibited from paying for the use of obesity medications — a policy that is discriminatory and a reflection of the stigmatization of obesity. The popular focus on the costs of obesity medications to Medicare distracts from the need to treat obesity like every other chronic disease.   

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