Media Contact: Lisa McDonald, Vice President of Communications, 202-207-2829
Washington, DC – Months after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) determined in a proposed rule that Medicare Part D should cover anti-obesity medications as a “medically necessary” service for people with the disease of obesity, the National Consumers League today applauded the reintroduction of the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA) in the 119th Congress as a critical step towards realizing this goal.
Introduced in the Senate by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), TROA aims to advance obesity care for older Americans by expanding access to intensive behavioral therapy (IBT) beyond the primary care setting and by allowing Medicare Part D to cover FDA approved anti-obesity medications (AOMs), including new injectable drugs called GLP-1s (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists). As such, TROA’s passage would end discriminatory and out-of-date Medicare policies and remove one of the biggest obstacles impeding access to quality obesity care by ensuring Medicare beneficiaries with obesity will have the same access to GLP-1s as those prescribed these drugs for treatment of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
When TROA was first introduced during the 113th Congress in 2013, 37.7 percent of adult Americans, or one in three adults, were living with obesity, and the American Medical Association responded by officially recognizing obesity as a serious disease requiring treatment. Now, obesity affects 41.9 percent of US adults – more than 100 million people – which makes obesity the most prevalent chronic disease affecting Americans, significantly eclipsing the other most prevalent chronic diseases: heart disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and stroke. Even more significantly, more than 230 medical conditions are directly linked to overweight and obesity, meaning these diseases worsen as the degree of obesity increases. Thus, obesity today is responsible for an estimated 400,000 deaths a year and costs the US economy an estimated $1.72 trillion annually.
Also of note, the science of obesity treatment has changed significantly since the Medicare Part D program went into effect in 2006, resulting in new therapeutic agents, such as GLP-1 drugs, that can help people lose up to 20 percent of their weight in 26 months. Calculating the potential savings resulting from better health outcomes when obesity is treated, studies are beginning to project the potential savings to the economy from covering obesity medications. One recent study published December 5, 2024, in JAMA Network Open, estimated that a 10 percent weight loss resulting from obesity treatment saved $2,430 in reduced medical expenditures, and for a 25 percent weight loss, the reduction in health expenditures is $5,444 per person.
Besides these reasons, the National Consumers League welcomes the reintroduction of TROA as a way that Congress can drive nationwide adoption of the Obesity Bill of Rights, issued by NCL and the National Council on Aging (NCOA) in 2024. The Obesity Bill of Rights defines quality obesity care as the right of all adults and establishes eight essential rights, including the right for older adults to receive quality obesity care and the right to coverage for the full range of treatment options so Americans with obesity will get the care specified in medical guidelines.
Accordingly, NCL looks forward to working with Senators Cassidy and Lujan to build support for TROA and to working with the sponsors of the companion House bill, which will be introduced soon. At a time when so much is at stake for the health of older adults, TROA can be a catalyst for Congress to help older adults realize these rights and improve the standard of care for millions of Americans with obesity.
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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
