Medicare

Kaczmarczyk said she looks forward to being eligible to enroll in Medicare next year, hoping that will curb her health expenses.

Medicare does not currently cover long-term care, just brief hospital and rehab stays.

The agreement, which was announced Thursday at the White House, appears to bypass a decades-old law that prevents Medicare coverage for medications used for weight gain or loss.

In the late 1990s, Medicare slashed reimbursement levels to around $450 per procedure, and the incomes of the surgically minded ophthalmologists fell.

In exchange for trimming prices on drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, they secured expanded Medicare coverage for obesity, opening the door to millions of new patients.