GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are revolutionary – and they’re exposing America’s healthcare crisis | David A Kessler

R.He is an American health care The system is broken. It is very complex and it is very difficult for people to get the care and medicines they need. More than 70 % of Americans feel their failure. The level of frustration and anger directed to this system is clear. In fact, what is increasingly evident is that there is no “system” at all.

The new GLP-1 drugs-a category that includes Wegovy and OzemPIC-revolutionized our understanding of weight loss, but they also shine defects in providing our health care. People who have struggled with their weight throughout all of their lives feel truly frustrated when they learn that there is now a drug that can help them but they cannot reach it. I carry three health insurance plans and none of them will be covered in exchange for drugs. In the face of this reality, the increased percentage of body fat, I decided to pay from a jeep-more than $ 1,000 per month-opposite GLP-1 to treat diabetics. For most people, this is not an option.

Although these new anti -population drugs, these new anti -obese drugs are very effective in helping people treat complications related to excess weight, which include heart and kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and pre -diabetes patients, 13 forms of cancer, and possibly certain types of dementia.

Obesity kills millions of people. At this stage, excess fat may be more harmful to our health than cigarettes. In the face of highly high prices, patients with excess weight are discovered in a system of perplexing complexity to potential risk. People whose insurance will not cover these medications with three options: carrying financial hardship, using less effective treatment options, or resorting to complex medications that have not been guaranteed or safe.

The third option is the place where the possibility of danger lies. In the face of drug lack and increased demand for the patient, a complex group of foreign chemical manufacturers, brokers and re -packing, and compound pharmacies offer cheaper copies of these drugs with less confirmation of their quality. There is no national standard for these drugs, with a few inspections of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for foreign chemical manufacturers, and there are no tests or supervision of the product itself. Vehicles pushing the borders to market their versions as approved products and it is actually impossible for the consumer to distinguish the difference between approved drugs and composite copies. It is a deal with licensing drugs – but assurances are less than safety.

One interest from the GLP-1S compound is that they forced pharmaceutical companies to reduce their prices. Their presence in the market also forced the pharmaceutical industry to sell the GLP-1 directly to patients at reduced prices. The manufacturers of the GLP-1, Lilly and Novo Nordisk created online platforms to bypass both complex and traditional pharmacies, and Lilly participated with three services from a distance to provide access to doctors trained in obesity and feed registrants.

Insurance will cover these medications in some cases, as is the case with sleep apnea or heart disease, but the process of fulfilling the insurance plan criteria adds to the complexity. Labor employers who provide insurance for their employees work with pharmacy advantages managers to manage the advantages of prescribed medicines, thus putting an amazing set of restrictions to try to control costs.

Some GLP-1S health insurance companies cover people most at risk of developing a serious disease, for example those who have a body mass index over 40 years. Others cover expensive weight loss surgery, but not the least invasive medications. Some service providers ask patients to prove that they have tried other weight loss measures-which may have, comprehensively-before the coverage was given. Others, as they do with expensive medications, use the long -time approval approval steps that require endless tours of information to sort those who believe that they will benefit from medications.

There is no doubt that these prior approval steps provide money, but they also risk the health and welfare of millions of people. As one of the angry doctors recently said of the insurance process before the prior approval of the insurance companies: “Do you not adjust to the practice of medicine themselves instead of providing insurance?” We are talking about a patient who has a body mass index of 41 who suffers from the bounce of the digestive system, but he does not have a metabolic disorder yet. The doctor commented: “But do we have to wait until you do?”

In response to a statement in a modern medical meeting by a CVS CAREMARK leaders, a subsidiary of pharmacy allocations management, which mentioned that we are all dealing with a frustrating system, a doctor recently wrote: “My lady, you are the system. You make it frustrated.”

Who will determine the path of treatment for the patient? It is difficult to understand why the insurance company’s decisions will be better or more on evidence than the effects of the doctors accredited by the board of directors who prescribe medications, who know and examine the patient. Doctors are trying to know the right -wing diagnostic groups that will persuade insurance companies to agree to drugs. Patients, at the same time, have a little sound in this process.

Although many of this imbalance can be attributed to efforts to save costs, it is complicated by the misleading belief that obesity can be overcome through the power of absolute will. Collectively, the failure of the medical society and society as a whole to recognize the biological nature of obesity, as well as the fact that it contributes in many years of disability and causes serious diseases. Our bodies have witnessed treachery over the course of the last century, which was caused by the never -ending consumption of foods that could lead to the circles of our brains addiction. It would be better to change our nutritional environment from using medications to tame these circles. But this is unlikely to happen any time soon, so we leave us with the health care system that should bear the damage caused by our modern reality.

But the current system is unable to do so. The pharmaceutical industry receives many of these drugs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has become its dismantling under the current administration and is unable to ensure the safety of medicines coming to this country. The health insurance industry made it impossible to reach these medications. The American public will only grow more angry.

No American should worry about whether insurance coverage is sufficient to keep them alive or provide access to the medications they need.

• David A Kesler MD served the position of FDA Commissioner (FDA) during the reign of presidents, George Ho W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He participated in the operation of the warp in the Biden administration and was the dean of the medical colleges at Yale University and the University of California, San Francisco. His latest book is diet, drugs, and dopamine: the new science to achieve a healthy weight.