Weight loss drugs should be 100% funded by the state. The economic losses avoided due to obesity greatly surpass the cost
haskell_jedi on
Apart from any issues of morality and judgement, this is short sighted and bad policy financially. Helping people lose weight dramatically reduces future health care costs on many axes.
CaptchaSolvingRobot on
Noooo! Our golden goose!
YouW0ntGetIt on
… France has weight loss drugs that WORK? :O I’ll fucking pay
Four_beastlings on
Semaglutide is a miracle drug that not only helps with obesity but also seems to help with addictions, but please let’s remember that it was created as a diabetes drug and there are many people with diabetes who need it to survive.
When generics are in production and there is enough for everyone, I will be first in line celebrating. But at the moment there is very limited stock and many diabetics can’t get it because richer, non sick people are buying it for weight loss. I am not in favor of incentivising people who don’t actually need this drug to live to take it from the hands of people who actually do.
pfnkis on
Seems to me this drug‘s story isn’t told until the end. I’m deeply sceptical of the long term effects of it with regard to stability of weight loss and metabolic issues.
Nuggetdicks on
That’s stupid.
electricboogi on
Since when did obesity become a disease? When my hair grows too long, I’ll go to the barber. When my eyes go bad, I’ll visit an optometrist. When my car breaks down, I’ll call a shop.
And here it comes: when my weight becomes too high for my comfort, I stop eating shit and double down on my exercise. The older I get, the more frequent I reach that stage, sadly.
But somehow being fat made you exempt from any personal responsibility? And don’t give me any bullshit about depression, all fatties I know are quite happily enjoying life whilst eating like pigs but with a healthy dislike for exercise of course, lol.
Edit: I knew I shouldn’t post this on a Friday afternoon on Reddit, when only the obese and sad are online, lol
cuica77 on
Leave these drugs to dibetic patients, shut your mouth and go to the gym.
ProutDeFiotte69 on
Stopping eating like a fat shit and do basic exercise is a free medicine to lose weight
Major_Wayland on
As companies that are making that drug are expect to keep it exclusive up to 2032 and now trying to wrap their patents to extend that period even further, I sincerely hope that Chinese and Indian companies would steal it as soon as possible. Screw big pharma and their “please think of ours billion profits”.
DFtin on
>Wegovy also isn’t usually covered in Denmark – Novo Nordisk’s home country – partly because the Danish health authority estimates that it would cost about 6 million Danish kroner (about €805,000) to prevent a single cardiovascular event.
I’d really like to see how they arrived to this number. At 300 euro a month, 805k comes down to 222 patient-years on Wegovy that are required for one prevented cardiac event. This seems off by a factor of 10, given how effective it is, and how terrible obesity is for your heart. Also doesn’t account for the fact that people who lose weight on Wegovy often don’t need to stay on it to maintain their new weight.
I think being so hesitant about what genuinely appears to be a miracle drug, is a huge public health mistake.
driscan on
GLP-1 drugs are a promising therapeutic option for patients with diabetes and/or overweight issues, but the first and preferred option should be dietary changes and physical exercice. Which is both safer and more durable than any medicine because, again, we lack data regarding the long-term innocuity of these drugs. Now, yes, some people have specific conditions and absolutely need these drugs, but *most* people are just too lazy to do the necessary changes in their lifestyles.
We’ve become accustomed to expect miraculous/technological solutions to very basic issues, because it’s so much easier to apply a bandaid than correcting the underlying issue in the first place.
In some ways, this new “miracle” drug is also a miracle to our consumerist societies: no need to aim at sobriety or to do any kind of fundamental change to our way of life, we can keep consuming more and more, year after year, and just find some kind of bandaid to fix shit up.
Now go ahead folks, downvote me.
TheGoalkeeper on
Reasonable. Most, but not all, people can lose weight on their own. It should be paid for those who tried but failed any other therapeutic/medical means
xxxDKRIxxx on
I don’t think this is wrong, but rather as of now the rational decision to make. This due to:
1. These are not wonder drugs. You will still have to have an internal drive and will to change your way of living to get the maximum effects. I see a lot of risk that we will pay for taxfunded medication for a lot of people who will see none or small results if it’s given freely. The drugs also have side effects so taking them without proper lifestyle changes will cause harm instead of doing good.
2. Eating and drinking less is actually a way of funding the medication and will give extra incentive for maintaining the diet.
Disclaimer: I’m on Saxenda and paying for it out of my own pocket, a little more than €200 a month. I’m eating less and craving way less alcohol and crap food so overall I would say I’m at least halfway to breaking even on lowered expenses. Have some hormonal issues that makes it hard to lose weight but am down 15 kg this year so it is well worth the money.
As the drugs get even better and the cost of them decrease the rationale might of course change.
15 Comments
Weight loss drugs should be 100% funded by the state. The economic losses avoided due to obesity greatly surpass the cost
Apart from any issues of morality and judgement, this is short sighted and bad policy financially. Helping people lose weight dramatically reduces future health care costs on many axes.
Noooo! Our golden goose!
… France has weight loss drugs that WORK? :O I’ll fucking pay
Semaglutide is a miracle drug that not only helps with obesity but also seems to help with addictions, but please let’s remember that it was created as a diabetes drug and there are many people with diabetes who need it to survive.
When generics are in production and there is enough for everyone, I will be first in line celebrating. But at the moment there is very limited stock and many diabetics can’t get it because richer, non sick people are buying it for weight loss. I am not in favor of incentivising people who don’t actually need this drug to live to take it from the hands of people who actually do.
Seems to me this drug‘s story isn’t told until the end. I’m deeply sceptical of the long term effects of it with regard to stability of weight loss and metabolic issues.
That’s stupid.
Since when did obesity become a disease? When my hair grows too long, I’ll go to the barber. When my eyes go bad, I’ll visit an optometrist. When my car breaks down, I’ll call a shop.
And here it comes: when my weight becomes too high for my comfort, I stop eating shit and double down on my exercise. The older I get, the more frequent I reach that stage, sadly.
But somehow being fat made you exempt from any personal responsibility? And don’t give me any bullshit about depression, all fatties I know are quite happily enjoying life whilst eating like pigs but with a healthy dislike for exercise of course, lol.
Edit: I knew I shouldn’t post this on a Friday afternoon on Reddit, when only the obese and sad are online, lol
Leave these drugs to dibetic patients, shut your mouth and go to the gym.
Stopping eating like a fat shit and do basic exercise is a free medicine to lose weight
As companies that are making that drug are expect to keep it exclusive up to 2032 and now trying to wrap their patents to extend that period even further, I sincerely hope that Chinese and Indian companies would steal it as soon as possible. Screw big pharma and their “please think of ours billion profits”.
>Wegovy also isn’t usually covered in Denmark – Novo Nordisk’s home country – partly because the Danish health authority estimates that it would cost about 6 million Danish kroner (about €805,000) to prevent a single cardiovascular event.
I’d really like to see how they arrived to this number. At 300 euro a month, 805k comes down to 222 patient-years on Wegovy that are required for one prevented cardiac event. This seems off by a factor of 10, given how effective it is, and how terrible obesity is for your heart. Also doesn’t account for the fact that people who lose weight on Wegovy often don’t need to stay on it to maintain their new weight.
I think being so hesitant about what genuinely appears to be a miracle drug, is a huge public health mistake.
GLP-1 drugs are a promising therapeutic option for patients with diabetes and/or overweight issues, but the first and preferred option should be dietary changes and physical exercice. Which is both safer and more durable than any medicine because, again, we lack data regarding the long-term innocuity of these drugs. Now, yes, some people have specific conditions and absolutely need these drugs, but *most* people are just too lazy to do the necessary changes in their lifestyles.
We’ve become accustomed to expect miraculous/technological solutions to very basic issues, because it’s so much easier to apply a bandaid than correcting the underlying issue in the first place.
In some ways, this new “miracle” drug is also a miracle to our consumerist societies: no need to aim at sobriety or to do any kind of fundamental change to our way of life, we can keep consuming more and more, year after year, and just find some kind of bandaid to fix shit up.
Now go ahead folks, downvote me.
Reasonable. Most, but not all, people can lose weight on their own. It should be paid for those who tried but failed any other therapeutic/medical means
I don’t think this is wrong, but rather as of now the rational decision to make. This due to:
1. These are not wonder drugs. You will still have to have an internal drive and will to change your way of living to get the maximum effects. I see a lot of risk that we will pay for taxfunded medication for a lot of people who will see none or small results if it’s given freely. The drugs also have side effects so taking them without proper lifestyle changes will cause harm instead of doing good.
2. Eating and drinking less is actually a way of funding the medication and will give extra incentive for maintaining the diet.
Disclaimer: I’m on Saxenda and paying for it out of my own pocket, a little more than €200 a month. I’m eating less and craving way less alcohol and crap food so overall I would say I’m at least halfway to breaking even on lowered expenses. Have some hormonal issues that makes it hard to lose weight but am down 15 kg this year so it is well worth the money.
As the drugs get even better and the cost of them decrease the rationale might of course change.