Denmark's largest health insurer drops weight-loss drug coverage as
demand soars
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[April 29, 2023]
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's largest private health insurer
Sygeforsikring Danmark, which insures roughly half the country's
population, will stop reimbursing weight loss medication from January
next year due to high demand, it said on Friday.
The growing popularity of costly new weight-loss drugs has prompted
insurers and health authorities to reconsider whether they can subsidise
anti-obesity medications, particularly since lifetime use might be
required to keep lost weight off.
Since the start of the year, the increase in subsidies for weight loss
medicine has reached a level that makes it unsustainable for the
company, the insurer said in a statement.
Members that have been granted individual reimbursements by the Danish
Medicines Agency through their doctor were exempt from the decision,
said the insurer, which has 2.7 million members.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Apr/29/images/ads/current/culligan_sda_SFARM_2023.png)
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![](../images/042923PIX/health65.jpg)
A competitor prepares to go in front of
judges at a casting call for the second season of the reality
television programme "Dance Your Ass Off", during which overweight
or obese contestants hope to lose weight by dancing, in New York
December 18, 2009. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png) Diabetes and obesity drug maker Novo
Nordisk launched its highly popular Wegovy weight loss drug in the
country in December, but the health authorities do not reimburse
patients for it, saying costs are too high compared to the benefits.
The public health care system in Denmark does not reimburse any
weight-loss drugs.
(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard, Louise Rasmussen; Editing by Jacob
Gronholt-Pedersen, Kirsten Donovan)
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