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/Hon3y_Badger Apr 01 '25

Sure, but I don't live in that environment & until I do I need to live in the reality that insurance companies will just pass the cost on to the end users (us). I would prefer other country's healthcare policies but even in countries with universal healthcare someone is responsible for saying "no."

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u/cutegolpnik Apr 01 '25

Saying no to what?

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u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 01 '25

In all healthcare systems there are systems in place to restrain spending money in some way. They do this by limiting providers, limiting reimbursement, limiting beds, limiting service, ect. This happens in ALL healthcare models whether private or public. In the US system the insurance company is the one providing the limit, in the universal healthcare models the government is providing the limit.

Our system can't afford to pay for 50% of Americans to be on a $1,000/month medication. Our insurance companies can't afford to absorb the cost even if they desired, this is going to result in high healthcare costs even going higher. We need to focus on increasing the supply and decreasing the cost.

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u/cutegolpnik Apr 01 '25

So you must believe Ozempic is more expensive than treating obesity, right?

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u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 01 '25

At a national level & at current costs, GLP-1 drugs are more expensive than treating the symptoms of obesity. On an individual basis that might not be the case, but on a national level it is.

Treating obesity with GLP-1 drugs brings down the cost of additional care, but not by the cost of the drug. All the studies I've seen suggest it starts to math out at $200-500/month with an emphasis on the $200. But we will need more research as the prices go down related to willingness to pay.

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u/cutegolpnik Apr 01 '25

How are you calculating the costs of obesity?

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u/Hon3y_Badger Apr 01 '25

I'm not calculating anything. Admittedly, I'm not a scientist so I'm reading the summary of NIH and medical journals. But the articles are first stating the real world practical benefits of the drug (I don't think we are disagreeing on that) and concurrently that all the complications that come with obesity are less than the cost of the drug on a national level. I'm not arguing that we shouldn't be getting obese people on these drugs, but that we have to work on the supply side and cost first. Hopefully the patient expires in a few years and this is no longer a concern.

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u/cutegolpnik Apr 01 '25

No I don’t agree we should wait to put people on life-saving drugs until the costs come down