{"id":7036951,"date":"2026-08-10T19:24:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/dont-curtail-access-to-weight-loss-drugs\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T19:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T19:24:29","slug":"dont-curtail-access-to-weight-loss-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Last November, a patient of mine\u2014nineteen\u00a0years old and established in our primary care clinic in Massachusetts\u2014came in for her annual physical. She\u2019d done everything we\u2019d asked for her chronic obesity. She\u2019d traded the bus for a mile-long walk to school, every day, both ways. She and her grandparents, who do the family\u2019s grocery shopping on an EBT card, had stretched what they could afford into more balanced and nutritious meals. Yet the number on the scale hadn\u2019t moved. She asked, quietly and with exhaustion, if there was anything else we could try.<\/p>\n

There was. But getting there wouldn\u2019t be simple. Before MassHealth, Massachusetts\u2019s Medicaid program, would even consider a prior authorization for a GLP-1 medication, it required<\/a> an initial six-month trial of phentermine\u2014a clinical cousin of amphetamines. This step-therapy trial was required despite the 2026 American College of Physicians guideline<\/a> recommending GLP-1s as the first-line treatment for obesity, ahead of phentermine, on the basis of both superior efficacy and toleration.\u00a0 So, if only as the means to an end, we started phentermine.<\/p>\n

My patient returned in May having taken phentermine at the highest dose she could tolerate. To neither of our surprises, her weight remained unchanged. She was finally ready\u2014clinically and bureaucratically\u2014for the medication most likely to help.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s when we heard that MassHealth would stop covering<\/a> GLP-1s for obesity entirely, effective July 1, 2026. Massachusetts is not alone. From 2025 to 2026, an estimated<\/a> twelve million Americans lost coverage for Zepbound and another twelve million lost coverage for Wegovy. Only thirteen state Medicaid programs covered<\/a> GLP-1s for obesity at the start of 2026, down from sixteen the year before.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: When effective medication disappears, patients don\u2019t stop needing treatment. They find another way. And the way that many people have been finding it is dangerous. Up to two\u00a0million Americans received<\/a> compounded versions of semaglutide\u2014cheaper, unregulated copies produced outside the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process\u2014between November 2023 and November 2024.<\/p>\n

As of early 2025, the FDA received<\/a> more than 455 adverse event reports linked to compounded semaglutide. Many of these involved dosing errors from patients who are self-administering incorrect doses; some of these errors led to hospitalization. The FDA has since submitted a proposal that would close the last remaining legal pathway for large-scale compounded GLP-1 production. The cheaper drugs that millions of patients have come to rely on are disappearing from the market, with nothing safe and affordable to replace them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other patients are rationing doses across two or three weeks, undermining their clinical effectiveness. Some are simply stopping, leading to what studies show<\/a> is rapid regains, with patients recovering 60 percent\u00a0or more of lost weight within a year of discontinuation, along with reversal of the metabolic benefits gained during treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

America has always been better at treating disease than preventing it, and GLP-1s have exposed that logic at its starkest. Medicaid will cover a patient\u2019s diabetes once they develop it. It will cover bariatric surgery, an invasive and permanent intervention, while refusing to cover the medication that could make bariatric surgery unnecessary for many patients.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an oversight. It\u2019s written into law.\u00a0A <\/a>federal statute explicitly allows<\/a> Medicare and Medicaid to preclude coverage of any drug \u201cused for anorexia, weight loss, or weight gain,\u201d a provision designed decades ago for amphetamines and appetite suppressants with limited evidence and real risks. Congress and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have since interpreted that exclusion to apply to GLP-1s. That makes treatments which reduce<\/a> cardiovascular mortality by 20 percent and produce weight loss comparable to bariatric surgery legally inaccessible to the patients who need them most.<\/p>\n

A system that covers the consequences of a disease while refusing to cover its treatment isn\u2019t making a cost-effective decision. It is simply moving costs downstream into emergency rooms, dialysis centers, and cardiac units, where they are larger, harder to reverse, and paid by future budgets. Congress should remove that exclusion and treat obesity the way we treat every other chronic condition\u2014before the complications arrive, not after.<\/p>\n

My nineteen-year-old patient doesn\u2019t have diabetes or chronic kidney disease or heart disease yet. She came to us early, while prevention was still possible, and did everything we asked. The system is waiting for her to get sicker. She shouldn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

This column was produced for <\/em>Progressive Perspectives<\/em><\/a>, a project of <\/em>The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n \t\"ShriaBucha.png\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Shria Bucha<\/a><\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Shria Bucha is a third-year medical student at Harvard Medical School and a health policy researcher at the Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital. She also serves on the board of Healthcare for Action.<\/p>\n

Read more by Shria Bucha<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

August 7, 2026<\/p>\n

2:44 PM<\/p>\n

<\/time>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last November, a patient of mine\u2014nineteen\u00a0years old and established in our primary care clinic in Massachusetts\u2014came in for her annual physical. She\u2019d done everything we\u2019d asked for her chronic obesity. She\u2019d traded the bus for a mile-long walk to school, every day, both ways. She and her grandparents, who do the family\u2019s grocery shopping on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7036952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[1846,199632,4629,17616,19889,27857,21046,199631,177469],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7036951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-access","tag-curtail","tag-dont","tag-drugs","tag-fda","tag-health-care","tag-opinion","tag-shria-bucha","tag-weightloss"],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last November, a patient of mine\u2014nineteen\u00a0years old and established in our primary care clinic in Massachusetts\u2014came in for her annual physical. She\u2019d done everything we\u2019d asked for her chronic obesity. She\u2019d traded the bus for a mile-long walk to school, every day, both ways. She and her grandparents, who do the family\u2019s grocery shopping on […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-10T19:24:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"824\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-10T19:24:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\"},\"wordCount\":814,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Access\",\"Curtail\",\"Dont\",\"Drugs\",\"FDA\",\"Health care\",\"opinion\",\"Shria Bucha\",\"weightloss\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Activist\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\",\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-10T19:24:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":824},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs - Som2ny Network","og_description":"Last November, a patient of mine\u2014nineteen\u00a0years old and established in our primary care clinic in Massachusetts\u2014came in for her annual physical. She\u2019d done everything we\u2019d asked for her chronic obesity. She\u2019d traded the bus for a mile-long walk to school, every day, both ways. She and her grandparents, who do the family\u2019s grocery shopping on […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-08-10T19:24:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":824,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs","datePublished":"2026-08-10T19:24:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951"},"wordCount":814,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg","keywords":["Access","Curtail","Dont","Drugs","FDA","Health care","opinion","Shria Bucha","weightloss"],"articleSection":["Activist"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951","name":"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-10T19:24:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GLP1.jpg","width":1200,"height":824},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7036951#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don\u2019t Curtail Access to Weight-Loss Drugs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7036951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7036952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7036951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7036951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7036951"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=7036951"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=7036951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}