Soon we’ll be celebrating a thinner, but still-malnourished America.
By Dianne Marie Normand Hartley
Last week at the White House, President Trump announced a deal that is “a triumph for American patients.” Flanked by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk Big Pharma executives and MAHA leadership, he revealed a historic agreement to slash the prices of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound. Prices that once averaged over $1,300 a month would soon fall to $245, with future pill versions capped at $149. Medicare will now cover these drugs for obesity, and state Medicaid programs will have the option to follow suit. The President and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted a negotiating “win-win.”
This was not a victory for public health — it was a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, wrapped in populist language. The press conference celebrated medicating a disease, but, unfortunately, not solving its cause.
Early in the announcement, the President said, “The United States is just four percent of the world’s population and consumes only 13 percent of all prescription drugs, yet pharmaceutical companies make 75 percent of their profits from the American customer.” He offered the statistic as proof that his administration was reining in the unfairness of the high drug costs the U.S. has been paying. Ironically, this new agreement doesn’t dismantle that profit imbalance; it entrenches it. America will still bankroll the industry’s profits, only now through government-backed prescriptions for a preventable disease that affects half of adult Americans.
Kennedy called obesity “a disease of poverty.” Yet the administration’s response is to subsidize drugs that treat the symptom rather than address the cause — lack of whole, healthy, delicious, affordable food for all of our citizens. What was billed as a war on chronic disease feels more like paying gas-mask manufacturers to distribute gas masks to citizens, rather than simply turning off the gas.
Kennedy projected that Americans would collectively lose 125 million pounds within a year because of this agreement. Dr. Mehmet Oz, CMS Administrator, upped the claim to 135 billion pounds by the midterms — a figure that would require every adult American to shed nearly 400 pounds apiece.
A lot of self-congratulations happened as the administration seems focused on trying to secure a “Most-Favored-Nation” drug-pricing model, the very thing nations with socialized medicine have done for decades — negotiating national drug prices on behalf of their citizens. Here, we continue to keep capitalism in our healthcare system alive and well. This market-driven arrangement ensures continued profits at the expense of our citizens, even as we praise the companies for their “generosity.” We now offer them access to half our population — at $149 per month.
Throughout the announcement, the word “win” echoed again and again — a “win-win” for companies, a “win” for patients, a “win” for America. The President repeatedly praised the CEOs’ success, calling them “fantastic,” “entitled to their money,” and “stars in the business.” He even marveled that “their stocks all went up” because of this.
But this so-called “win” does nothing to change the food supply that makes us sick in the first place. We are a country where millions rely on ultra-processed, nutrient-stripped food because it’s what’s available and affordable — food that other countries would not allow on their shelves. Now, instead of fixing that, we’ll medicate it’s result. People may lose weight, but many will still be malnourished because of the food choices available to them — thinner, perhaps, but not healthier. If the goal of medicine is vitality, not just vanity, then this isn’t victory at all.
This is capitalism at its finest — an expansion of the pharmaceutical economy, financed by taxpayers.
Yes, many Americans suffering from obesity will finally have access to these drugs. That matters. But let’s not confuse access with reform. Lower prices don’t fix the system that made them necessary.
None of this is to say these drugs have no place in medicine. For some people, they can be a lifeline — a reset button, a first step toward regaining control of their health. But when access to medication becomes the stand-in for a functioning food system, we have lost sight of what health means. If the government truly wants to make America healthy again, it must start not with pharmaceuticals, but with food — though that would be labeled a “nanny state” move and would cut into the profits of food manufacturers. Don’t want that.
We are watching capitalism at its finest. Make a problem for the masses, then solve it—making money on both ends.
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