NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money, I'm Darren Woods.

And I'm Patty Hirsch.

Obesity is a disease that affects more than 40% of Americans.

It contributes to and exacerbates hundreds of other diseases, including the biggest killers of Americans.

It's heart disease, cancer, and COVID-19.

And that makes obesity expensive.

The Milken Institute, which leans moderately liberal, estimated that in 2016 health care costs related to obesity and being overweight, added up to

480.7 billion dollars, and there's an additional 1.24 trillion cost to the wider

economy due to lost economic productivity. So all of these new weight loss drugs

that we've been hearing about recently kind of sound like a lifesaver

right both for individuals and for the economy but while you might think from the

media coverage that everyone is taking Wagovey or Manjaro or even Ozempik the diabetic drug to deal with their weight loss, the fact is that they're not.

In fact, fewer than 30% of Americans have access to these drugs through their health plans.

Medicare patients meanwhile have no access because of legislation that forbids Medicare

from covering medications used for weight loss.

So on today's show we'll find out why the uptake of weight loss drugs has been so

slow despite the long-term financial incentives.

And we'll see how social conditioning and short-term thinking is still trampling all over economics in the weight

loss debate. That's coming up after the break. Support for NPR and the following message come from Indeed.

When it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all.

Don't search, match with Indeed.

Get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.

...