The news: Medicare and Medicaid could cover GLP-1s for weight loss as part of a proposed five-year government experiment, according to a report in The Washington Post.

• State Medicaid programs and Medicare Part D plans would be able to cover Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound for weight management purposes.
• The experiment, which will be conducted through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ innovation center, is expected to begin in April 2026 for Medicaid and January 2027 for Medicare.

Why it matters: Medicare will cover GLP-1s for patients with diabetes but is prohibited by law from covering them for weight loss alone. About three-quarters of US states don’t cover GLP-1s for Medicaid when used just for obesity, per KFF data.

Trump’s healthcare team rejected a last-minute proposal from the Biden administration to have Medicare and Medicaid cover GLP-1 medications for weight loss. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been outspoken against the high costs and overuse of GLP-1s, preferring that people make lifestyle and behavioral changes instead.

Key stats: About 7.4 million Medicare and Medicaid members could have used their insurance to pay for weight loss drugs if Biden’s proposal had been finalized. But it would increase Medicare spending by $25 billion and Medicaid spending by $15 billion over the next 10 years, per CMS estimates.

Our take: The pilot, albeit not finalized, is a significant about-face from the Trump administration—particularly its top health official, Kennedy. It could be a signal that CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is behind the plan, since he’s a bigger proponent of the meds.