Elon Musk, who is spearheading President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, is touting GLP-1 drugs to treat obesity.
“Nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors [sic] super low cost to the public,” Musk wrote in a post on X Wednesday. “Nothing else is even close.”
Musk’s comments come just two weeks after the Biden administration made an 11th-hour push to require Medicare and state Medicaid programs to cover obesity drugs. The administration is proposing to reinterpret a 2003 law banning Medicare from covering popular GLP-1s directly for weight loss to do so.
The Biden administration’s proposal comes as the treatments can often be out of reach for consumers due to their cost, lack of insurance coverage and drug shortages. Congress is weighing legislation to lift the ban, which would dramatically expand access to the drugs but also would likely cost tens of billions of dollars.
Musk is leading the “DOGE” effort along with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and has pledged to cut trillions in federal spending. Congressional Republicans have said it’s too early to lay claim to top priorities or cost-cutting moves, but a DOGE framework has started to take shape.
It’s not clear how Musk would make GLP-1s “super low cost.” The drugs are expected to be eligible for Medicare price negotiation down the line, which could be one potential avenue to reduce their cost. The pharmaceutical industry and business interests have challenged in court the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions establishing the price negotiations.
Still, Musk is pitching the drugs as a long-term cost saver.
“Vast majority of healthcare spending is near end of life and obesity often plays a major role,” Musk said in a July post on X. “GLP and other hunger inhibitors might be the single biggest positive effect on healthcare and quality of life in the 21st century.”
The Congressional Budget Office has said it doesn’t have direct evidence showing that using GLP-1s for obesity reduces other health care spending.
Musk could have an ally in Trump’s pick to run CMS, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who has touted Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic for weight loss. But Trump’s pick to run HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been skeptical of the drugs.
Kennedy has raised concerns about cost and said in a recent Fox News interview that pharmaceutical companies are “counting on selling it to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”
