Juliet Kubansky

Through a test program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, wanted health plans to voluntarily add obesity drug coverage for 2027.

But 80 percent of insurers had to sign on by April 20th, says Juliet Kubansky, a Medicare expert at the nonpartisan research group KFF.

A separate temporary program that would allow Medicare beneficiaries to get obesity drugs for $50 will still go into effect in July, but Kubansky says it will now have to last longer and could cost taxpayers billions.

Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.

Even at the discounted prices that CMS had negotiated with the manufacturers, it's

It just wasn't low enough, it seems, for the insurers to think that it was in their interest to participate in this model.

Through a test program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, wanted health plans to voluntarily add obesity drug coverage for 2027.

But 80 percent of insurers had to sign on by April 20th, says Juliet Kubansky, a Medicare expert at the nonpartisan research group KFF.

A separate temporary program that would allow Medicare beneficiaries to get obesity drugs for $50 will still go into effect in July.

But Kubansky says it will now have to last longer.

and could cost taxpayers billions.

Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.