Trump’s Fails Seniors: President’s Plan to Offer Obesity Drugs in Medicare Faces Near Certain Death
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Two major health insurers, United Health and Aetna, did not commit to participate in the Trump administration’s BALANCE model, the Trump administration’s attempt to get some Medicare beneficiaries access to GLP-1 obesity drugs by the April 20th deadline, meaning the pilot will likely never get off the ground.
The model requires a “critical mass” of Medicare Part D prescription drug plans to move forward with implementation.
To make good on Trump’s promise to bring affordable GLP-1s to more Americans, HHS should support Public Citizen’s petition to authorize generic competition with patented GLP-1s under a provision of law known as Section 1498.
Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Director, issued the following statement:
“It’s dubious whether Trump’s efforts to lower GLP-1 prices were ever sincere. Either way, Trump’s plan likely is dead or mostly dead now that major insurers have refused to sign up.
“There is a different, real path to affordable GLP-1s. But it requires that the Trump administration get serious about holding drugmakers accountable, instead of faking it while making confidential deals that give Big Pharma big perks. Wealthy pharma giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk got lucrative vouchers for faster FDA reviews for committing to a lower GLP-1 price in Medicare they may now no longer have to offer.
“The government has power under existing law to authorize much more affordable generic competition with patented GLP-1s. Those generics will be available soon across the border for Canadians, but not available to Americans unless the Trump administration acts. Failure to take this power seriously means that Medicare and Medicaid will suffer under mounting costs, and Americans will endure treatment rationing and mounting debt.”
Public Citizen’s analysis of the BALANCE demo is available here.