Medicare Coverage for Weight Loss Drugs

Good morning One of the biggest Supreme Court terms in recent years ends with a flurry of major decisions. The Washington Post reflects on how the justices reshape the country's political landscape and beyond. I think one theme that's very clear from this incarnation of the Roberts courourt is that They have greatly enlarged presidential power New financial disclosures reveal how Trump reaped a billion dollar windfall since returning to office. And starting today, Medicare will help cover weight loss drugs There's a catch. It's Wednesday, july first. I'm Cecilia Le in for Shimita Basu. This is Apple News today The Supreme Court just wrapped up a busy year of highly consequential decisions that will not only shape President Trump's agenda, but the country for many years to come. We spoke with Washington Post reporter Justin Juvenal about some of the most significant rulings and the major questions they've raised The biggest theme that dominated this term was President Donald Trump's agenda. We saw a number of cases Ct's emergency docket, where it decides cases on a temporary basis and on its regular docket, where it makes final rulings dealing with Trump policies from his bid to end birthright citizenship his policy to deploy the National Guard to Chicago The court delivered a mixture of blows and wins to the president. Those blows include his signature tariff policy, his efforts to end birthright citizenship, to limit mail in voting, and fire a member of the Federal Reserve. But the president did walk away at the end of the court's term with much more power than he had before The Supreme Court has allowed him to go forward with firing thousands of federal workers allowed him to drastically cut the education department, which was set up by Congress The Ct also gave the executive branch authority to fire people at will who work across roughly two dozen independent agencies that allows him to exert much greater authority over those agencies and how they operate And that will give him a major tool to not only carry out his agenda but as his critics sometimes say to reward his cronies and to punish his enemies A number of the court's rulings could help Trump's party win elections. The justices lifted limits on how much political parties can spend on advertising, which juvenil says could give the Republicans a big boost heading into the midterms Democrats tend to raise more money through individual candidates, but the GOP political committees have a much larger war chest, more than one hundred million dollars available to spend and the court gave Republicans another possible edge in the midterms with its decision on the Voting Rights Act Back in April, the court struck down a majority black congressional district in Louisiana, ruling that its design relied too much on race One of the major themes of this Roberts' court is this idea of a colorblind constitution, which is the idea that All people should be treated the same under the law in the Constitution And there shouldn't really be ways of redressing past discrimination by creating programs that can advantage minority groups And we really saw that come to the forefront this term in the Voting rightights Act decision Juvenile says the implications of that ruling could become apparent in November Legal experts expect it's going to result in far fewer minority candidates in office And that could have big implications for the midterm elections because these states are redrawing Congressional districts ahead of the midterms when the balance of power in Congress is up for grabs between the Democrats and Republicans and it could affect the outcome of who controls the house Other areas of anti discrimination law are already seeing an impact from this ruling. The Trump administration is now saying the court's decision also applies to agricultural programs and employment Zooming in on another Supreme Court ruling, justices upheld two state laws that barred transgender athletes from participating in girls and women's sports teams. One challenge came from a trans woman in Idaho who was blocked from trying out for the track and field team at her university Another came from a mother in West Virginia who challenged a law preventing her child, a trans girl from playing on her middle schools sports team Brooke Migden covers LGBTQ plus rights for the nineteenth, a newsroom that focuses on gender and politics. Paintiffs in that case, they had argued that those bans violate both the Constitution's equal Protection Clause and Title IX, which is a landmark federal statute prohibiting sex based discrimination in school sports. Split along ideological lines, the six consonservative justices concluded the bans violated neither More than half of U.S states have similar laws on the books But the justices opted against a broader ruling What we got from the court today is a pretty narrow ruling in that it only applies to West Virginia and Idaho and there respective transgender sports bands. That means states without bans can continue allowing transgender student athletes to compete on girls and women's sports teams. It also means states with bans, or those considering them, might feel confident their laws will survive any legal challenges President Trump called it a big win, and West Virginia Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capadau told Fox News it could jumpstart the push for similar federal legislation This keeps them safe, it keeps them in fair competition. and it lays to rest, I think, a lot of questions around the country as to what does it mean to play in women's sports? We have tried at the federal level to pass laws, but we've been batted down here. I think this may open up The gates for that. if in fact, we do need a federal law Advocates say these bans shut out transgender girls and women from competing in their chosen sport. Speaking to AP before the verdict, Becky Pepper Jackson, the teenager at the center of the West Virginia case, spoke to AP from a sports field. This is a big part of my life. I've spent most of my childhood Being in the sport case I felt like I had to be a part of that because I think every transgender girl should have the right to be who they are and play on the sports team that they identify with becausecause it's no one's opinion who you are and what you should be doing The bans would affect a very small number of people. In West Virginia, Pepper Jackson is the only known athlete subject to the law. But the issue has gained a lot of traction in the last few years. It was an important part of the president's campaign Kamala even supports letting biological men compete against our girls in their sports. Kamala is for they themn. President Trump is for you And shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order aimed at keeping transgender women out of women's sports It's created something of a divide inside the Democratic Party, with some vocally defending transgender athletes and others appearing to shift in their positions in light of public opinion In a twenty twenty five New York Times IPpsOS poll, nearly eighty percent of respondents opposed allowing transgender women to compete in women's sports House Democratic Cucus chair Pete Aguilar said decisions on trans athletes should be decided locally in consultation with coaches and parents We tend to believe in leaving this up to local sports organizations and groups who have figured this out. I don't know why those decisions can't be made locally and why we can't allow coaches and teachers and and parents and kids to arrive at a conclusion that they can live with. this court believes a little differently. Some sporting bodies have changed their policies over the past year. The International Olympic Committee opted to limit the women's category to biological females, citing performance advantages for the male sex And the NCAA, which governs U. S college sports, brought its own ban to line up with Trump's executive order Migden noted to us that following the Supreme Court decision, Justice Kavanaugh went out of his way to extend empathy to the young plaintiffs in the case Kavanaugh wrote in Tuesday's Majority opinion that students' desire to compete in school sports warrants respect and that no student on either side of the issue, whether transgender or cisgender deserves to be, in his words, ostracized or vilified. Justice Kavanaugh's point is to reinforce that a lot of these people challenging sports bandans are young people, a lot of them children The future for trans athletes and women's sports will be on the ballot this November, with Arizona, Colorado, and Washington states likely holding votes on the matter Starting today, millions of Americans on Medicare can qualify for affordable weight loss drugs known as GLP ones Under a temporary program, Medicare recipients can get prescriptions for Weigovi, Zepbound, and Foundeo for just fifty dollars a month, much cheaper than paying without insurance It can be two hundred and fifty, three hundred, four hundred dollars a month, which is unaffordable for a lot of people, especially seniors on a fixed income Christopher Rolland is a healthcare reporter at the Washington Post. And so you're going to have a number of people who are obese and who are over sixty five years old who are now going to be able to take advantage of this benefit Now, federal law actually prohibits Medicare covering weight loss drugs, but the government is running this as a temporary pilot program for eighteen months Roland says the short term nature of this particular program raises some practical issues starting in January of twenty twenty eight, unless they come up with some new program peoplee who are on this program who are paying fifty dollars a month are going to face either higher costs or the prospect of not taking the drugs any longer, which obviously is not a very welcome development for them And if the treatment is short term, then the benefits might be too. Numerous studies suggest many users regain at least some of the weight they lost after coming off JLP ones. And other improvements, things like blood sugar and cholesterol, can revert backwards too Some clinicians argue that the drugs should be seen as treating a chronic condition, which typically requires long term medication The healthcare organization KFF estimates nearly four million people will qualify for the program, but Rowand says it won't be an easy process Doctors have a set of criteria based around a patient's BMI That means the program is intended to help people with health risks associated with obesity Patients looking to lose weight for cosmetic or lifestyle reasons wouldn't qualify The doctor will certify that yes, you meet these criteria. They will send it in to this pharmacy, the pharmacy will send it to Medicare Medicare will say you have to do a prior authorization. So then it'll go in a circular pattern and then you're provider and the pharmacy will have to submit a prior authorization form that will review that They're saying they can do this in under seventy two hours But a lot of people aren't sure that's going to be that easy If that all sounds complicated, it is. It could mean some folks don't get their prescriptions I'm told that a lot of providers might not understand the complexities of who qualifies So some people might come away disappointed And the advice that I'm told people are going to be getting is that you just got to keep trying. Another open question is how much will this cost taxpayers? The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid haven't released estimates, but one expert told Roland it could add four to five billion dollars to Medicare's tab. Meanwhile, Congress could take action and allow these types of drugs to be covered permanently, but not everyone is on board There is still politically some stigma about weight loss and a lot of Politicians and lawmakers and people in the general public think that it is ultimately still a behavior problem and that people who are obese are just not trying hard enough. Well, the medical establishment now knows that's just not true for so many people who is they're genetically predisposed to obesity They have a number of factors that keep them from losing weight. Here are a few other stories we're following today President Trump earned well over a billion dollars in cryptocurrencies and digital tokens last year That's according to nearly a thousand pages of financial disclosures released yesterday One of his biggest sources of revenue came from an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates. It controversially bought a five hundred million dollars stake in World Liberty Financial. The crypto company founded by Trump and his sons. And Trump's own coin, branded with his name, earned him more than six hundred million dollars, according to the filings He announced that coin shortly before the inauguration, and it shot up briefly before plummeting eighty percent. The disclosures reveal he now earns most of his money through ties to digital assets It's a financial mechanism the administration has enthusiastically supported, pushing for policies beneficial to the industry A White House spokesperson said neither Trump nor his family had ever engaged in conflicts of interest The disclosures stand in stark contrast to Vice President Vance's. That came in at seventeen pages, and one of his major boosts came from a jump in sales for his memoir, Hill Billy Elegy. The Republican congressman who disappeared from public view for nearly four months was back on Capitol Hill yesterday. New Jersey Representative Tom Kaine spoke on the House floor and addressed his unexplained absence several months ago Due to health concerns I entered the hospital for some testing I did not believe that this would result in a long term stay I was given the diagnosis of depression Kain missed more than one hundred and forty votes in the chamber during his time away, which complicated matters for House Republican leaders who struggled to pass bills with their thin majority He's running again in a key district that's expected to be competitive in the midterms. During his speech, he said he had deepened his appreciation for mental health support and reassured constituents that he was, quote, healthier, stronger, and excited to return to the work that I love. And finally, it was a busy day in NBA free agency, and one major name says he's switching teams. Ag LeBron James is leaving the Los Angeles Lakers after eight years and won NBA championship with the franchise James says he is playing next year, but hasn't revealed where His tenure in LA comes with some pretty high accomplishments. On top of his championship, he became the league's all time leading scorer and was the first player ever to team up with his son when he and his oldest child Bronnie took the court together in twenty twenty four James will play in his record twenty fourth year when he laces up next season, and the Lakers orrganization has thanked him for his years in LA So far, the Golden State Warriors have popped up as a potential destination, but no formal announcement has been made. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next The Atlantic explores American yard sales and the deal making, weirdness, and heartbreak that comes along with buying your neighbors' discards. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus narrated to find that story And I'll be back with the news tomorrow