“Medicare for All” would save the U.S $5.1 Trillion over 10 years

[u/The-Lucky-Investor]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/30/easy-pay-something-costs-less-new-study-shows-medicare-all-would-save-us-51-trillion

[u/Ginden]

What’s your proposal?

Pay 100 billions to Novo Nordisk (something like 20 times their profit from Ozempic) and make patent available for free.

It's probably the best investment possible, as US is estimated to lose $170B every year (2016 prices) due to obesity and overweight.

[u/Old_Height_8351 → u/Ginden]

There may be a short term effect of losing weight using drugs, but they won’t be on this med forever and likely revert back to their old weight because the root cause hasn’t been solved. Poor lifestyle habits, poor diet choices, and sleeping habits

[u/Ginden → u/Old_Height_8351]

So what?

[u/Old_Height_8351 → u/Ginden]

So this thread is about spending on healthcare. If you’re not actually fixing the reason someone is obese, this wouldn’t be a long term fix leading to a potential short term reduction in spending but not a significant reduction long term

[u/Ginden → u/Old_Height_8351]

Yes, semaglutide is life-long treatment. It can be produced and sold at profit at prices somewhere around $120 for year therapy. Assuming $225B (2024 prices) yearly cost of obesity and overweight in US, and 60% of population obese/overweight, it's 1130-120 ≈ 1000 dollars saved per obese person.

And remember, $225B is underestimate, as it counts only healthcare costs, without factoring in lost productivity, disability payments, fertility loss, quality of life loss.

[u/Old_Height_8351 → u/Ginden]

It’s a lifelong treatment if people are adherent to it and have the money to pay for it.

My point still stands about solving for root cause. If you don’t change your habits, you’ll still have poor health outcomes regardless of being obese or not. Not being obese is certainly preferred but you also need to be healthy. There are skinny people that are metabolically unhealthy