Dec 22, 2025 04:31 PM
Another "allow them to get hooked" and then later "refuse to cover the outrageous price of the drug" tactic of the establishment.
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Older Americans Quit Weight-Loss Drugs in Droves
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/healt...=url-share
INTRO: Year after year, Mary Bucklew strategized with a nurse-practitioner about losing weight. “We tried exercise,” like walking 35 minutes a day, she recalled. “And 39,000 different diets.”
But five pounds would come off and then invariably reappear, said Ms. Bucklew, 75, a public transit retiree in Ocean View, Del. Nothing seemed to make much difference — until 2023, when her body mass index slightly exceeded 40, the threshold for severe obesity.
“There’s this new drug I’d like you to try, if your insurance will pay for it,” the nurse-practitioner advised. She was talking about Ozempic.
Medicare covered it for treating Type 2 diabetes but not for weight loss, and it cost more than $1,000 a month out of pocket. But to Ms. Bucklew’s surprise, her Medicare Advantage plan covered it even though she wasn’t diabetic, charging just a $25 monthly co-pay.
Pizza, pasta and red wine suddenly became unappealing. The drug “changed what I wanted to eat,” she said. As 25 pounds slid away over six months, she felt less tired and found herself walking and biking more.
Then her Medicare plan notified her that it would no longer cover the drug. Calls and letters from her health care team, arguing that Ozempic was necessary for her health, had no effect.
With coverage denied, Ms. Bucklew became part of an unsettlingly large group: older adults who begin taking GLP-1s and related drugs — highly effective for diabetes, obesity and several other serious health problems — and then stop taking them within months.
That usually means regaining weight and losing the associated health benefits, including lower blood pressure, cholesterol and A1c, a measure of blood sugar levels over time... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - -
Older Americans Quit Weight-Loss Drugs in Droves
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/healt...=url-share
INTRO: Year after year, Mary Bucklew strategized with a nurse-practitioner about losing weight. “We tried exercise,” like walking 35 minutes a day, she recalled. “And 39,000 different diets.”
But five pounds would come off and then invariably reappear, said Ms. Bucklew, 75, a public transit retiree in Ocean View, Del. Nothing seemed to make much difference — until 2023, when her body mass index slightly exceeded 40, the threshold for severe obesity.
“There’s this new drug I’d like you to try, if your insurance will pay for it,” the nurse-practitioner advised. She was talking about Ozempic.
Medicare covered it for treating Type 2 diabetes but not for weight loss, and it cost more than $1,000 a month out of pocket. But to Ms. Bucklew’s surprise, her Medicare Advantage plan covered it even though she wasn’t diabetic, charging just a $25 monthly co-pay.
Pizza, pasta and red wine suddenly became unappealing. The drug “changed what I wanted to eat,” she said. As 25 pounds slid away over six months, she felt less tired and found herself walking and biking more.
Then her Medicare plan notified her that it would no longer cover the drug. Calls and letters from her health care team, arguing that Ozempic was necessary for her health, had no effect.
With coverage denied, Ms. Bucklew became part of an unsettlingly large group: older adults who begin taking GLP-1s and related drugs — highly effective for diabetes, obesity and several other serious health problems — and then stop taking them within months.
That usually means regaining weight and losing the associated health benefits, including lower blood pressure, cholesterol and A1c, a measure of blood sugar levels over time... (MORE - details)