Medicare to Pay for GLP-1 Coverage After Insurer Pushback (1)

April 22, 2026, 12:23 AM UTC

The federal government scrapped a plan to have health insurance companies fund coverage of obesity drugs for seniors, opting instead to pay for the medicine with taxpayer dollars through the end of next year.

The Trump administration’s initial plan would have made insurers responsible for covering wildly popular weight-loss medications in Medicare plans starting in January. That could have cost those companies billions of dollars in its first year, a recent study suggested. They likely would have had to raise premiums for Medicare prescription drug plans to cover the expense.

Instead, the government will fund coverage for 2027, which will ...

Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:

See Breaking News in Context

Bloomberg Law provides trusted coverage of current events enhanced with legal analysis.

Already a subscriber?

Log in to keep reading or access research tools and resources.