Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.
For more than two decades, a law has prohibited Medicare from paying for weight loss drugs, cutting off access to millions of potential patients who could stand to benefit. The ban has come into even sharper relief in recent years, with the Food and Drug Administration's approval of powerful but pricey drugs including Wegovy and Zepbound, which, without insurance coverage, are unaffordable to all but the wealthiest members of society.
The legislation the Ways and Means Committee voted on Thursday was a scaled-back version of the original version of The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act. This version would limit coverage to people who had been taking a weight loss drug for a year prior to enrolling in Medicare. The coverage would also only apply to people with obesity, excluding those who are overweight with at least one weight-related condition.
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