Public employees in West Virginia who took the drugs lost weight and were healthier, and some are despondent that the state is canceling a program to help pay for them.
Dr. Joanna Bailey said most of her patients in Pineville, W.Va. who need weight loss drugs don’t have insurance to cover the cost and can’t afford the sticker price.
“Obesity first” doctors say they start with one medication, to treat obesity, and often find other chronic diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, simply vanish.
With Wegovy, one of the new obesity drugs, Lesa Walton not only lost more than 50 pounds; her arthritis cleared up and she no longer needed pills to lower her blood pressure, she said.
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