Getty Images Earlier this year, Dr. Mehmet Oz announced from his perch atop the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that eligible Medicare Part D beneficiaries will be able to access select GLP-1 obesity medicines for $50 per month, starting July 1. The program, called the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, will run through the end of 2027 and include medicines such as Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo when used for weight reduction.
For seniors and Americans with long-term disabilities struggling against obesity and related health problems, this is good news. Obesity is a serious chronic disease. It raises the risk of diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, and so many other costly conditions. Patients should not be locked out of modern treatments simply because Medicare rules have not kept up with the rapid pace of innovation.
But we also have to be honest about what this policy is.
This is not a normal market price for GLP-1s, nor is it proof that Washington has discovered the correct price for obesity medicines. It is a temporary subsidy program for Medicare Part D patients. CMS says the Bridge will operate outside the normal Part D payment flow. Pharmacies will collect the $50 copay from patients, and a central processor will handle payments to pharmacies. Manufacturers will provide eligible GLP-1 drugs at a net price of $245 per monthly supply.
Put simply, taxpayers are footing the bill, but it’s a bet by policymakers that the costs will be lower than those of emergency medical care for obesity-related conditions. It’s a good bet.
This isn’t to say that government price controls work. It is competition around GLP-1s and direct access that are pushing prices down. CMS can only create this new access program because market forces have already significantly reduced GLP-1 prices.
We can see this in the direct-to-consumer and self-pay market for weight-loss drugs. In 2024, Lilly launched Zepbound single-dose vials through a self-pay channel at $399 per month for the 2.5 mg dose and $549 per month for the 5 mg dose, removing third-party supply chain costs to lower the price. By the end of 2025, consumer prices fell again by up to 27 percent.
Last year, NovoCare Pharmacy began offering Wegovy to cash-paying patients at $499 per month, offering a discount down to $199 per month for the first two monthly fills, then $349 after that. Pricing will only get better.
This is what sustainable affordability looks like: more options, direct access, and pressure on middlemen. More companies are competing for patients.
The danger is that policymakers draw the wrong lessons from Oz’s Bridge program — namely, that the government can and should set prices.
This also matters because Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing keeps returning to the policy debate. It sounds attractive because it promises Americans the lowest prices available abroad. But in practice, it imports foreign price controls into the United States. CMS has described the model as requiring no more than the lowest price manufacturers receive in developed countries for certain Medicare drugs.
That may sound like a quick fix, but quick fixes can still have long-term costs. If the government turns every medical breakthrough into a price-setting exercise, investors and innovators will respond. Fewer dollars will flow into the next generation of obesity, diabetes, cancer or cardiovascular treatments.
Consumers won’t benefit if today’s discount comes at the cost of tomorrow’s cure.
The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge is, in effect, just a monthly subsidy for its enrollees, and it’s a worthwhile trial for Part D patients who need access now to improve their health. The administration would be wise not to make it a permanent model for government price-setting.
Fred Roeder is a health economist and director of the Consumer Choice Center.
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