My US doctor recommended it to me last week and said there was a way for it to cost about $200/mo if I want to do that. I thought it was strange that he said it that way instead of just saying the price, but I didn't follow up because we were 45 minutes into the appointment and I was ready to get out of there.

I'm supposed to book a follow up appointment after I've read about it, so I guess I'll find out what he means then.

Pretty much every expensive medication has a copay assistance program in the US.

For trirzepatide: https://www.mounjaro.com/hcp/savings-resources

They typically are income blind and make your out-of-pocket price negligible. I'm on a med (Skyrizi) that's $18k per shot, one every three months; their assistance program ensures I don't pay more than $5.

They chip in on the deductible/coinsurance/copay, you don't skip the medication due to cost, and they still get significant money out of your insurer. Everybody wins, until everyone's premiums go up next year.

Goddamn your healthcare system is fucked up.

Is it? Isn't this exactly the outcome you'd hope for?

Individual consumers pay basically nothing and companies are still incentivized to innovate and create new medicines

Individual consumers aren’t paying nothing. The cost is just being hidden from them so they don’t flip over the tables.

They pay via premiums - mine went up to $2,792/month this year - or if their employer pays those, via the resulting wage impact.

And, as a result, we spend 2-3x what the rest of the OECD spends on healthcare - public and private spending - with roughly the same health outcomes.

Agreed. Injecting a milliliter of fluid worth as much as a new car makes me twitchy.

Your doc was probably referring to purchasing semaglutide from a compounding pharmacy, which is usually in the $200/month range (depending on dose). Compounded versions don't typically come in the user friendly "injection pen" format that brand name versions do, so not everybody is comfortable with that option.

Interesting. For an $800/mo savings, I can get real comfortable self administering an old-fashioned shot.

14mg Rybelsus can be had for about $200/mo through Canadian pharmacies.

Look at 1800rxonline.

I thought the UK had government healthcare?

It does but it doesn’t mean you get any treatment available. They carefully make decisions on what treatments they can/should provide. This may be offered eventually but at the moment it’s a case of be very fat and get offered gastric sleeve or just be overweight and no treatments are offered other than advice about losing weight

Any sort of new care option, you're looking at 20-30 year window before it may become an option?

Semaglutide is available on the NHS but I wouldn't currently qualify. It'd only be prescribed if I met certain criteria such as having type 2 diabetes.

It's a case of either paying for a private prescription now, or waiting until it's made more accessible on the NHS.