{"id":355290,"date":"2026-06-10T21:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/355290\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T21:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:51:10","slug":"can-california-afford-to-cover-ozempic-for-public-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/355290\/","title":{"rendered":"Can California afford to cover Ozempic for public employees?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/newsletter\/ozempic-calpers-healthcare\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">bill<\/a> advancing in the state Legislature would require weight loss drugs like Ozempic to be covered for public employees.<\/p>\n<p>But officials at the largest health plan for those workers are pushing back, saying expanding that coverage would cost too much.<\/p>\n<p>CalPERS, the state pension fund and health plan, estimates the expansion could cost the state over $180 million just in the first year.<\/p>\n<p>Inglewood Senator Laura Richardson introduced the bill which would cover <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.bluelena.io\/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDIJnWd7pB5yQ~GhRah2HAmudXwjxZlXqc6InHL5aJ_zEy7xeZu1XAgjkA0_ueglPPKInmi95B~ztEYUuG-132ljdD3\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">treatment for chronic weight disease management<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She says withholding weight loss medication from public employees will come with its own expenses. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why would you want me to gain more weight, have co-morbidities, have diabetes, all of that that&#8217;s gonna cost you more money to provide health insurance for me,&#8221; said Richardson.<\/p>\n<p>Even if the bill makes it to Governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s desk, the cost could still be an issue. Just last year, the state cut <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.bluelena.io\/lt.php?x=4lZy~GDIJnWd7pB5yQ~GhRah2HAmudXwjxZlXqc6InHL5aJ_zEy7xeZu1XAgjkA0_ueglPPKInmi95B~ztEYUuG-132ljdD2\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Medi-Cal\u00a0<\/a>coverage for weight loss drugs to save money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bill advancing in the state Legislature would require weight loss drugs like Ozempic to be covered for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-355290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}