Nolte: Ozempic and Other Drugs Prescribed for Obesity Cost Taxpayers Billions

Because around 25 percent of the public’s health care is paid for by the taxpayer, we taxpayers are facing billions of dollars in costs for Ozempic and other drugs prescribed for obesity.

“State health plans and Medicaid offices are seeing eye-popping bills for Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic, its sister drug Wegovy and similar medications known as GLP-1s,” reports Bloomberg. “But with list prices stretching above $1,000 a month, the costs threaten to empty government coffers.”

“It’s not sustainable,” North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell said recently. “It’ll sink the plan.”

States are so worried about these costs that they are looking for ways to cut down on who’s eligible.

“Connecticut imposed new hurdles for state employees seeking weight-loss treatment in July, after spending on the drugs rose 50% annually since 2020.” The month prior, Virginia then tightened eligibility guidelines for Medicaid recipients.

Bloomberg says this is only the beginning, that the “[d]emand for the drugs is poised to explode.” Currently, more “one in 10 Americans have type 2 diabetes, and upward of 100 million suffer from obesity.”

The obesity rate is even higher for Medicaid recipients. Oh, and 19 percent of Americans receive Medicaid. Add that to the some 20 million who work for local and state government, and it’s enough to make you want to lose yourself in the wilds of Montana with a cabin filled with guns and canned goods.

And this is a double-edged sword…

Yes, those of us who are not on the government dole are once again paying billions for all kinds of freebies and benefits unavailable to us in the private sector. But those on the government dole depend on a government that can cut off their benefits at any time with the stroke of a pen. When you rely on the government, the government owns you, and believe this: the government doesn’t give a damn about you.

But don’t you love how this works out…

What better way to increase government dependency than to commission the worlds of pop culture and the corporate media to lie to the public about obesity being beautiful and healthy and then offer government programs that reduce obesity…? Oh, and then the pharmaceutical companies that flood politicians with contributions and the pop culture/corporate media worlds with advertising dollars make billions and billions off the American taxpayer.

“One dollar of every $4 spent on health care, or $327 billion a year, goes toward treating Type 2 diabetes.” And what is Type 2 diabetes? A disease most people give themselves by sitting around all day playing video games and eating junk. Listen, I get that some people are genetically predisposed to be overweight. But go look at photographs and videos of everyday people walking along the street pre-1980, and the first thing that strikes you is how trim almost everyone is. Go look at old photographs of the circus fat lady and tell me she doesn’t look thinner than the guy in front of you at Dollar General.

As a taxpayer, I’m all for helping people unable to help themselves. I’m even in favor of getting people out of a jam of their own making with drug rehab or gastric bypass surgery. Fine. Whatever. Everyone deserves a second chance, maybe even a third or fourth chance. But we’re paying $1,000 a month because people refuse to diet and exercise — which will have the same effect at a much cheaper price? No, that’s BS.

Ah, but will we enjoy the long-term benefits that should come with prescribing these drugs? Will taxpayers save money down the line thanks to these drugs reducing the obesity rate? When has something involving the demonic welfare state ever worked out to the benefit of anyone other than the lazy and the Democrats who need the lazy to vote for them?

Never.

When I’m king, if some welfare leach asks for an obesity drug, it will arrive in the form of a treadmill. That’s it. That’s all you’re getting. What happens next is up to you.

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