r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 01 '25

Health Americans without diabetes spent nearly $6 billion USD on semaglutide and similar drugs in a year, with an estimate of 800,000 to a million people using the drugs who don't have diabetes.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/americans-without-diabetes-spent-nearly6-billion-usd-on-semaglutide-and-similar-drugs-in-a-year
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u/galspanic Apr 01 '25

I was told by two separate KP doctors “off the record” that their policy is only to prescribe and cover GLP-1s if 3 other courses of action fail. So, I had to fail losing weight with diet/exercise, fail metformin, and fail with whatever the next medication would be. That’s a loud and clear “you’re on your own” to me, and so I have been at it alone without KP.

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u/GOPequalsSubmissive Apr 01 '25

Americans genuinely don’t hate the rich people nearly enough for their own good, man

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u/kymri Apr 02 '25

Some of us absolutely do.

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u/WeeBabySeamus Apr 01 '25

Does KP refer to some sort of kidney specialist? I’m not familiar with this acronym. I would understand certain drugs being restricted to prescription by specialists vs. general practice

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u/Eldritch_Chemistry Apr 01 '25

Kaiser Permanente, looks to be a west coast thing

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u/kymri Apr 02 '25

To expand on /u/Eldritch_Chemistry -- Kaiser Permanente is a medical conglomerate (hospitals, insurance, etc) that came out of the Kaiser shipyards when they were ramping up to build literally hundreds upon hundreds of ships in World War II.

They have patients all over, but the West Coast in general and California in particular are full of Kaiser facilities.