> The additional costs to the healthcare system due to people being overweight probably exceed 12000/person/year
This is a big claim to assert without evidence. If it was the case then insurers would already be adding the drugs to their formularies.
There is undoubtedly a cost associated with obesity but you are suggesting that simply being overweight doubles the average cost of care[1], a figure that already includes overweight and obese people (which are of course a huge population in the US).
A quick Google search turned up a report[2] that suggests that
> This estimated public cost equates to an average marginal cost of $175 per year per adult for a one unit change in BMI for each adult in the U.S. population.
So, even for the extreme case of a very obese person that has a very successful treatment and goes from 40 BMI to 25 BMI, you are only saving a hypothetical $2,625 per year (perhaps an underestimate due to inflation and the age of the paper).
Therefore it would appear that unless insurers strike a deal with the drug companies (lower the price, make it up in volume), such a law would dramatically increase insurance premiums. A better compromise would be a law which requires insurance companies to offer co-insurance on these drugs up to the expected savings.
> If it was the case then insurers would already be adding the drugs to their formularies.
American healthcare system has perverse incentivizes. Most unhealthy groups are generally least likely to be privately insured, so insurers are incentivized to prioritize health issues affecting working-age adults, while neglecting those which will be someone's else concern in future.
This is a big claim to assert without evidence. If it was the case then insurers would already be adding the drugs to their formularies.
There is undoubtedly a cost associated with obesity but you are suggesting that simply being overweight doubles the average cost of care[1], a figure that already includes overweight and obese people (which are of course a huge population in the US).
A quick Google search turned up a report[2] that suggests that
> This estimated public cost equates to an average marginal cost of $175 per year per adult for a one unit change in BMI for each adult in the U.S. population.
So, even for the extreme case of a very obese person that has a very successful treatment and goes from 40 BMI to 25 BMI, you are only saving a hypothetical $2,625 per year (perhaps an underestimate due to inflation and the age of the paper).
Therefore it would appear that unless insurers strike a deal with the drug companies (lower the price, make it up in volume), such a law would dramatically increase insurance premiums. A better compromise would be a law which requires insurance companies to offer co-insurance on these drugs up to the expected savings.
[1] https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2023/01/why-are-americans-paying-m....
[2] https://vinecon.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cwe12...