We can’t say we disagree with a proposal by Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Exton, to require insurance coverage in Pennsylvania to cover weight loss treatments like Ozempic or Wegovy.

But commonwealth residents and their elected representatives should look at both the cost of plans and the maze of regulations and requirements for insurance coverage in New York state — particularly on state-backed Medicaid plans — as reasons for caution as they debate bills like Friel Otten’s.

The problem isn’t individual bills. They are typically sponsored by legislators who mean well and who have been approached by constituents who have a specific need and ask their elected representative for help. That’s the way the system is supposed to work.

Btu New York’s problem is that over the years hundreds of these requirements have been passed, driving up the cost of insurance on consumers because the state requires coverage for such a wide variety of treatments, medications and procedures that all customers are paying for things they won’t use in order for the insurance company to meet the state’s requirements.

That’s how New York ended up with a Medicaid program that costs $7,912 a year for each enrolled person — 75% higher than the national average of $4,484 and nearly three times the California average of $2,770.

State lawmakers have to be careful in weighing requests like Friel Otten’s, because there is no wonder drug from a pharmaceutical company that can make an overweight Medicaid program less bloated.