Photo courtesy Rep. Danielle Friel Otten’s Facebook page State Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Exton, speaks during a news conference in Harrisburg.

Legislation will be introduced soon in the state House of Representatives that would require insurance plans to cover obesity treatments.

Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Exton, recently began circualting a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation she is drafting that would require private and public insurance plans in Pennsylvania to cover approved anti-obesity medications and procedures.

“Modern advances in the field of obesity medicine have provided hope and healthier lives for countless Americans, but insurance coverage for anti-obesity medications and other approved obesity treatments remains inconsistent, leaving many Pennsylvanians to fight obesity on their own, or worse, fall victim to predatory scams and the use of unregulated, ineffective, and sometimes dangerous products that claim to provide the same benefits as prescribed and clinically tested AOMs,” Otten wrote.

Otten’s legislationc omes at a time when the federal Food and Drug Administration is considering Mounjaro, a new weight-loss drug and treatment for type-2 diabetes. Existing products Ozempic and Wegovy have also proven popular nationally.

The Associated Press reported in April that industry analysts predict Mounjaro could become one of the top-selling drugs ever, with annual sales topping $50 billion. It is expected to outpace Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, a version of the drug also known as semaglutide approved for weight loss in 2021. Together, those drugs made nearly $10 billion in 2022, with prescriptions continuing to soar, company reports show.

According to the Associated Press, Mounjaro helped people with the disease who were overweight or had obesity lose up to 16% of their body weight, or more than 34 pounds, over nearly 17 months. The late-stage study of the drug for weight loss adds to earlier evidence that similar participants without diabetes lost up to 22% of their body weight over that period with weekly injections of the drug. For a typical patient on the highest dose, that meant shedding more than 50 pounds.

“They have entirely changed the landscape,” said Dr. Amy Rothberg, a University of Michigan endocrinologist who directs a virtual weight loss and diabetes program.

Research has shown that with diet and exercise alone, about a third of people will lose 5% or more of their body weight, said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The medications can be expensive. Wegovy is priced at about $1,300 a month while Mounjaro used for diabetes starts at about $1,000 per month. Insurance coverage varies for such products, with some insurance companies that previously paid for the drugs enacting new rules requiring six months of documented lifestyle changes or a certain amount of weight loss for continued coverage. Medicare is largely prohibited from paying for weight-loss drugs, the Associated Press reported in April.

“This legislation would protect patient safety by ensuring access to regulated treatments and relieve the strain on our healthcare system by helping to reduce the prevalence of obesity-related health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and Type 2 diabetes,” Otten wrote in her co-sponsorship memorandum. “Most importantly, expanding coverage under public and private health insurance plans would help individuals with obesity access the treatments they need to live longer, healthier lives.”