When governments can negotiate drug prices

By law, Medicare had been restricted from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. That is changing, but Medicare is currently still limited in the number of drugs that it can negotiate. In contrast, KFF Health News published an article about weight loss drugs, including how Denmark was able to secure pricing that is about 15% of the list price of Ozempic in the U.S. It seems highly unlikely that Denmark would have been able to get the discounted price if it did not have the ability to refuse coverage for the drug.

Weight loss drugs present an interesting opportunity in that they may be considered optional medication -- that is, obese patients are not expected to suddenly die because of a lack of access to the medication. As such, the public is likely to be more understanding if a payer (the government, in Denmark's case) decides to not cover it, giving the payer more leverage.