Mounjaro/Zepbound Why the High Cost in United States

hello my name is Jenna I have been on mongero or slz Bound for about over seven months I've lost over 80 lbs I am so grateful and excited that these drugs are available and I was able to lose this weight I feel like I've been dieting my whole life uh even when I wasn't exactly um heavy I was dieting so I think this has in a constant struggle I had my son uh 8 years ago and after his birth I literally gained 100 lbs so I was in a really bad situation um trying to diet I did keto lost some weight it came back um and then I ended up with um Co related pneumonia and in the hospital and um realized had to be rushed to the hospital myo2 oxygen saturation was in the 70s um and I realized I had to do something about my weight went to my doctor and she put me on mongero and it worked beautifully for me I continue to weigh my food and exercise and it has been a miracle for me um however my insurance does not pay it pay for any weight loss medications so I pay out of pocket and I pay with I get for $550 I do use the Eli Lily savings card um however I do understand not everyone can put out $550 a month it's not in everyone's budget um the price of food is going up living expenses are going up and gas everything has skyrocketed in price and a lot of people don't have that money to put out uh for weight loss medication so um you know I started thinking what is happening here why is this medication so expensive and I started researching some things if I look down at I'm looking at the notes that I took to kind of um give you guys an idea of how much things cost in other countries um first of all let's talk about OIC OIC is $1300 in the United States wovi is also $1,300 in the United States however W GOI in the Netherlands or excuse me in Germany is $328 mongero in or gosh excuse me OIC is $103 in Germany OIC is 96 $6 in Sweden and $83 in France why why are we paying almost ,000 more um and we'll talk about that in a minute mongero in the United States is $1,023 in Japan it's $319 and then in the Netherlands is $444 so in a lot of these cases we're talking people in the United States are paying ,000 a month more why what is happening well first our government does not negotiate drug prices so they can basically charge whatever they want and we have insurance companies that can choose to pay or not choose to pay you know coverage is basically up to them and you know what they've negotiated with your employer it it's just in the air whether they're going to pay for it I have said before um we're seeing people pulling out insurance companies pulling out from paying these prices for weight loss medications and I truly feel like there is a point that they are giving every they're writing scripts or doctors are writing scripts for everyone people who have cosmetic weight loss that I understand 20 PBS could feel like a lot to some people I understand that but from my understanding and what what I've heard Eli Lily say it is not for cosmetic weight loss um I do think there should be some standards that to start this medication you should have a BMI of 30 and a comorbidity or a BMI of 35 that way the people who genuinely need it are getting it or obviously or if you're diabetic and then the people who genuinely need this medication are getting it and are getting it paid for I if it's a matter of finances I would rather see that done until the prices of these medications go down than people who genuinely need it not being able to get it because everyone their mother brother and sister was given a prescription um yeah so the cost of these in the United States are outrageous and Out Of Reach for so many people who could benefit and then you have the insurance companies who are saying yeah we could pay for this and it could prevent diabetes heart disease cancers because there's cancers too related to um morbid obesity but they don't even know if you're going to have that same Insurance in a year or two years to even benefit from that so they're just taking that gamble it's it's cheaper for them not to pay the other thing that sort of um made me a little upset about it is the United States subsidizes a lot of they you know they say yeah you know this medication might it might be like $5 to make a month but we do research we have to pay for these research trials it takes years to get it through the FDA we taxpayers subsidize research and development in a lot of cases in most cases the US government is subsidizing the research of these medications so not only or is our tax money going for research and development now we're paying so much more money than other countries for this medication because it's not negotiated so it's like we're paying we're doubly paying for it in taxes and then in cost um they took a there was a research poll done about these about weight loss medications and if people would be interested and it was a you know if I remember correctly it was a pretty decent Siz poll and about 50% of people said yeah I would be interested in taking a medication if it's going to help me lose weight get healthier um that number Dr dropped to 16% when they had to pay out of pocket because a lot of people just can't afford that high price tag and that is unfortunate um they also in this survey showed that 80% of Americans support drug companies paying for these medications because the bottom line is even if you don't have to lose weight there's a good chance along the way you're going to need a medication and there's a possibility your insurance is going to say no we're we're just not going to pay it I mean there is that you run that risk and I think people are understanding now what is going on with these Pharmaceuticals and insurance companies and the cost of health coverage and are saying wait a minute if I'm not willing to support it for someone else when it's my turn nobody's going to support it for me so I was actually really glad to see in this this one survey and I understand it's one survey but that 80% of people were were supporting um insurance companies covering these medications um so yeah the the whole thing um kind of of upsets me when I think about what other countries are paying and that we we through our tax dollars have subsidized some of this research and development for these amaz and they are amazing medications I don't I am so grateful that um I was able to have access to this and I know they are buying the it is in such demand they're buying new place new manufa places to manufacture um and I'm thrilled that they are doing that so we don't have to deal with the shortage but the flip side of that is with such demand they have no reason to lower the prices because hey if the demand is there and people are willing to pay you know why not why what is why should they lower it I mean at the end of the day it is a business and the manufacturing plants or whatever that they have purchased have cost them billions of dollars they need to make that money up so I as much as I would like to say I think they're you know going to lower their prices I think the only way they're going to lower is if Merc fizer whatever other uh farmaceuticals come out with their own weight loss medications and there's competition right now now it's Eli Lily and noo Nordisk it is their game um and until other Pharmaceuticals can come up with medications that um obviously they can't be exactly the same because they own patents but you know are coming out with more weight loss medications I don't see them lowering the price um and insurance companies we can you know Al we can do is ask write our Senators and say look you know this medication like in my situation I was pre-diabetic my blood work shows that that I am not anymore I had high blood pressure I am no longer taking blood pressure medication um my doctor suggested I write my Senators because um these pharmaceutical or these insurance companies and pharmaceuticals are supporting our candidates they are giving money to campaigns but they can't vote these people in we vote them in so it's in their best interest to support us and go to these insurance companies and say we you know the people need this kind of coverage um yeah so let me know what you think about this I would love to hear everybody's take on it um yeah that's about it for the day please like subscribe M please make a comment I would love to continue this conversation and have a great day see you next time