being free means taxpayers will pay. and being on the public system means it will be prescribed only for health risk, just like plastic surgery already is. you don't see people getting nose jobs just because.
Generics are so cheap and easy to make that they can reasonably justify that it will save the government money by making the population healthier. Just think about how much less heart disease and cancer and every other obesity-affected disease costs the taxpayer.
totally agree. was pointing out things left out from the previous comment which was kinda of impling gov would be paying all uses of the sliming drugs, even if on generics price. ... because those drugs make profit not because of it's health benefits.
First, it seems obvious to me that they'll prescribe it to everyone who, supposedly, undergoes bariatric surgery through the SUS. Generic Ozempic is certainly cheaper than bariatric surgery.
That said, I believe it will go even further.
To get medication through the SUS, you only need a prescription from a doctor. Any doctor. So even if the SUS itself don't prescribe, you can just find a doctor who will do it...
But, likely SUS will prescribe anyway. Rio mayor:
"Rio will be a city where there will be no more chubby people; everyone will be taking Ozempic at family clinics." "Said the mayor, adding that he has already taken the medication. He claimed to have lost 30kg with the medication."
> To get medication through the SUS, you only need a prescription from a doctor.
Not in all cases. They can and will make the patient and multiple doctors fill out half a dozen forms to "justify" the use of an expensive medication.
Probably won't happen at first, politicians need to make good on their promises after all. But it will happen. I just got done filling out the forms for a COPD medication that's much cheaper than semaglutide. Only political intervention can save it.
> Not in all cases. They can and will make the patient and multiple doctors fill out half a dozen forms to "justify" the use of an expensive medication.
But any doctor can do it, not just SUS doctors. You know the country we live in. Private doctors will do the prescription... Actually, to buy it you already need a prescription, and yet, even skinny healthy folks buy ozempic.
And to get in the SUS, it's pretty simple here in Paraná at least (and as a SUS user). The worst that happens, it's that for expensive/controlled medicines, they centralize into a single public pharmacy in the city center, and you need to schedule a day/time, and bring the ID - don't even need to be the user, you can ask anyone you want to get it if the prescription and ID it's there.
Which is why for my cheap medicine, I prefer to buy it. Not worth for me going to city center only for 30 pills that cost R$ 15.
It is prescribed to the morbidly obese. It's just that patients almost always opt for cheaper options when I inform them of the costs of the treatment. Even if our public health care system starts offering semaglutide, it is extremely likely that it will impose requirements and require "justification" for the use of the medicine. You know, the usual soulless kafkaesque bureaucracy. It can frustrate people so much they give up. I've seen it.