Larry Williams Drive

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Do we need the Government to help fund Wegovy?

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Sinopsis

From today, Wegovy is available on our shelves so you can get skinny like Oprah, if you want. But it'll cost you - $500 per month. Which is unaffordable for most people, prompting a debate over whether the Government should fund it to reduce obesity and safe money on obesity-related illnesses and injuries. Now on principle, this is the kind of thing I'm a fan of - a bit of money upfront to save lots of money later. But unfortunately, as it stands, this wouldn't be an example of saving money. If we were funding Wegovy like they do in the UK, we'd fund it for people with a BMI over 30. In New Zealand, that is a staggering 1.5 million adults, apparently. If every one of those adults cost $500 per month, that would cost $7.5 billion per year - but it would only save $2 billion a year in obesity-related healthcare costs. Now, that's only measuring health costs directly related to obesity. As we know, carrying too much weight makes you prone to illness, which means you take more days off work, making you less produ