Medicare’s recent move to cover the weight-loss drug Wegovy for some recipients with heart disease risk could drive up the cost of monthly premiums for many of the 65 million adults enrolled in the federal health insurance program, experts warn. How much of a price jump isn’t yet known. The premium increase would depend on how many millions qualify for the popular medication, which is priced at around $1,300 a month.
An analysis published by KFF last month found that gross Medicare spending on the diabetes drug Ozempic, which shares the same active ingredient as Wegovy, increased from $2.6 billion in 2021 to $4.6 billion in 2022, making it the sixth top-selling drug in Medicare Part D that year. Medicare began covering Ozempic in 2018. However, Davis added, any kind of premium increase caused by Wegovy is much more likely to happen as early as the 2026 enrollment year. “This drug is expensive,” Davis said.
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