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. On Thursday, a House committee took some of the first steps needed to change that law, which would allow Medicare to cover weight loss drugs for the first time.
The Ways and Means Committee voted a piece of legislation called The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2023 out of the committee and into the full House. The vote marked a pivotal moment for the bill, which has languished for over a decade in Congress . It’s been reintroduced several times, but has never come up for a committee vote as it did Thursday.
The legislation will now make its way to the full House, though it remains unclear whether it can garner enough votes for passage. Even if it clears the House, it would still need to pass the Senate and garner the president’s endorsement to become law. Time is of the essence: The current session of Congress will end on Jan.
3, 2025. Any bills not signed into law by that time will need to be reintroduced when the next Congress convenes, essentially starting the process over. “This is the first step of a path that is still very uncertain.
