Posts Tagged ‘health economics’

“GLP-1s have blown our budget” is an excuse we hear for cutting people off from getting care. Fair enough. The costs for obesity treatment need to come down. But a growing body of evidence tells us it would be a serious mistake to overlook the economic benefits of treating obesity. In fact, a recent study in […]

Right now, we are witnessing a great withdrawal from healthcare, especially for people living with obesity. Many people are losing health insurance coverage altogether because it has become unaffordable. Many others are finding that their insurance will no longer pay for the care they need – if they want the care, they must have the […]

Good luck if you want to make sense of headlines about health insurance and coverage trends for GLP-1 medicines. Peruse the headlines and you can find just about any narrative you want. “Rising health premiums push more small business to drop coverage,” according to Inc. “Employers are opting out of covering GLP-1s,” claims Hines, a […]

U.S. spending on healthcare hit a new record in 2024 – $5.3 trillion. That is a seven percent jump from the prior year, maintaining a longstanding pattern of health spends rising faster than spending on everything else in this economy. But how can it be that, despite all this spending, the burden of chronic diseases […]

For addressing diet-related diseases – especially obesity – a great deal of attention goes toward the demand for food in comparison to the supply. Think about all the effort that goes into nudging people toward healthier diets. Nutrition Facts labels insinuate what is “healthy” to eat and what is not. We have epic battles about […]

Americans are only barely aware of the role that pharmacy benefit managers play in health insurance. But what they do know is not good. To the extent that most people know anything about these shadowy players in health insurance, they know PBMs control which drugs they can get, how much hassle it is to get […]

At a press event last week, announcing a deal to make obesity medicines more affordable, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz told us “Americans will lose 135 billion pounds by the midterms” because of this. Comedian Stephen Colbert pointed out a problem with the numbers. They imply that every single American will be losing 393 pounds. It […]

A year ago, we had these wonderful new obesity medicines – semaglutide and tirzepatide – and nobody could get them. Demand had outstripped supply and we had a shortage. Earlier this year, the supply shortage for both drugs resolved, but now we face the same situation because of a different shortage. There is a shortage […]

We are most accustomed to technology bringing economic disruption. Three decades ago, it was the internet. Then smartphones and social media. Now, we obsess about the effects of artificial intelligence. But a strong case is building that obesity medicine is becoming an economic disruptor on a scale that is equal or greater than any of […]

The acute shortage of obesity medicines is over. But in absolute terms we are still operating with a mindset of scarcity when thoughts turn to obesity care. Policy often dictates limited access to care and even more so, to medicines that can so effectively treat this condition. What happens if we start thinking in terms […]