Nearly 20,000 Grassroots Advocates and a Dozen Prominent Health Care Advocacy Organizations Urge CMS to Finalize Rule Expanding Medicare & Medicaid Coverage to Include Lifesaving Obesity Treatments
January 27, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, a dozen prominent health care advocacy organizations and nearly 20,000 grassroots advocates from across the country called on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to support and finalize a proposed rule to expand Medicare and Medicaid coverage to include critical, FDA-approved anti-obesity medications — a move which could benefit 7.5 million Americans enrolled in the programs who are living with obesity and being denied access to lifesaving treatments. The calls for action came via a pair of letters spearheaded by the Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease (HECCD) and submitted to CMS via the public comment portal, as the comment period closed this week.
Leaders behind the effort say the proposed rule comes at an urgent moment, as an estimated 42% of American adults are currently living with obesity, and as some studies estimate that more than half of Americans will be living with obesity by 2030.
Dr. Elena Rios — Co-Chair of the Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease and President of the National Hispanic Health Foundation — issued the following statement today:
“Expanding Medicare & Medicaid coverage policies to include anti-obesity medications will have a profound impact on improving the health of millions of Americans — especially older Americans living in rural and underserved communities who experience disproportionately higher rates of obesity, and who are too often left behind by our health care system. Obesity has been designated a chronic disease for well over a decade. If enacted, this rule will ensure that Medicare and Medicaid will finally begin to treat it as such — by ensuring the clinical standard of care that millions of Americans deserve. Treatment professionals should have every tool in the toolbox— from intensive behavioral therapy around diet and exercise and medication treatment or surgery as appropriate —-to improve the health of older Americans living with obesity.
“By finalizing this rule, the Trump Administration has a legacy-building opportunity to do what no other administration has been able to: Reverse the course of a worsening obesity epidemic and decades of deteriorating public health, and improving the health outcomes for millions of Americans who have long been overlooked by our health care system.”
Advocates Mobilizing Across the Country
In a comment letter filed with CMS, nearly 20,000 grassroots advocates from across the country said that the policy enshrined in the proposed rule has already garnered broad, bipartisan support and would significantly improve the health outcomes for millions of Americans.
“Bipartisan lawmakers and advocacy leaders — representing tens of millions of Americans from all 50 states — have praised the proposed rule as a major step toward improving the health of millions of Americans and finally combating a costly epidemic that takes a $173 billion toll on the U.S. health care system every year,” the letter from grassroots advocates states. “By finalizing this policy, CMS has an era-defining opportunity to potentially reverse decades of deteriorating public health and rising obesity rates experienced by millions of Americans — in communities both rural and urban, big and small. This policy will usher in a new era of American public health while also cementing a commitment to ensuring that all Americans have access to evidence-based care and the opportunity to live longer and healthier lives.”
Prominent Health Care Leaders Call for Urgency
Echoing the same urgency, a dozen national advocacy organizations signed onto a separate letter — also submitted to CMS — arguing that current policies are inequitable and impact the most vulnerable communities, including older Americans in communities of color and rural America. Nearly half of Black and Latino adults suffer from obesity, and in rural communities, obesity rates are 6 times higher than those in urban and suburban areas.
“Current policy perversely incentivizes patients to get sicker, as Medicare beneficiaries cannot receive medications to treat their disease of obesity unless they develop type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease,” the public comment letter states. “Medical professionals have long understood that the disease of obesity is the underlying cause of many related conditions and increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, some cancers, and much more. By covering AOMs, CMS is saving lives and may even prevent Medicare beneficiaries from developing these associated risks.”
Advocacy organizations who signed onto the public comment submitted to CMS represent a diverse cross-section of constituencies, reflecting the ubiquitous nature of the obesity epidemic and its prevalence amongst some of the highest at-risk populations. Signers include the Alliance for Patient Access; Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention; Council on Black Health; Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease; League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC); MANA, A National Latina Organization; National Action Network; National Association of Hispanic Nurses; National Hispanic Council on Aging; National Hispanic Health Foundation; National Minority Quality Forum, and; the Obesity Care Advocacy Network.
Obesity Epidemic Comes at High Cost
The total cost of chronic diseases due to obesity was $1.72 trillion in 2016, which is more than the federal government spent last year on Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance subsidies combined. These high costs fall on taxpayers and individuals. Researchers at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center project that coverage for new obesity treatments could save Medicare $175 billion in the first 10 years alone. If obesity and their extreme costs persist and grow, the problems will get worse, and they will get worse for historically disadvantaged communities of color far more than others.
The public comment letters submitted to CMS can be accessed at the following links:
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The Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease (HECCD) believes that all people deserve the best possible health care. Continuing to allow outdated coverage policies to restrict access for communities dependent on public programs is counter to the principles of health equity. The Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease’s mission is to ensure that community experts, policy makers, providers, and other stakeholders work together to eliminate barriers to healthcare for rural communities, seniors, and communities of color, especially as related to access to care and treatment for obesity.
