B.C. doctor calls on the province to cover obesity medications – CBC
A petition from Dr. Ali Zentner asking for more PharmaCare coverage has received almost 1,000 signatures
Jul 17, 2024
A B.C. doctor is calling on the province to cover weight management medications in order to fix what she calls a “two-tiered system” for obesity care.
Dr. Ali Zentner, a diabetes and obesity specialist with Vancouver-based Revolution Medical Clinic, has started a petition to demand the inclusion of medications like semaglutide and liraglutide in B.C. PharmaCare.
They are anti-diabetic and anti-obesity drugs that can cost patients up to $450 per month out of pocket.
And even more costly is the serious health problems that patients can develop due to obesity and the treatments needed to address them, which Zentner and a patient say add to the case for covering these drugs.
Around 23 per cent of adults in B.C. are obese, according to 2018 data from Statistics Canada.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/obesity-medication-petition-1.7265771
