Should we foot the bill for other people's weight loss?

If it benefits the health of the whole country, would you be willing to pay for someone else in Australia to lose weight?

Ozempic, Wegovy and medications like them have revolutionised weight loss in Australia and around the world in the past few years, and both are now approved for treating diabetes and your taxpayer money goes towards subsidising their cost.

But the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has rejected funding them for weight loss. This means that people who are overweight but do not have diabetes are looking at hundreds of dollars a month if they want to try them to lose weight. On this episode of the Briefing, we’re asking – is that the right call? Bension Siebert is joined by Jonathan Karnon, Professor in Health Economics at Flinders University’s College of Medicine and Public Health, and Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing at The University of Queensland, to help answer the question.

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