With a 40% obesity rate in Louisiana, access to affordable, affordable treatment is critical. It took decades. But beginning in January health insurance will have to cover weight loss surgeries. Well, still those weight loss injections are not covered. Medical reporter, mc Ferris has the latest price update on tonight's weight loss. Wednesday, G LP one injections have changed the health of people who have difficulty losing weight, excess weight that can lead to chronic health problems. The medication regulates a disrupted metabolism and gets rid of the food noise in the brain. The medication works but the cost doesn't. The state of Louisiana is considered a low access state um from an obesity standpoint. So there many many people who do not have insurance coverage for obesity treatments including anti obesity medications. Since insurance doesn't pay the monthly cost of more than $1000 for injections like we go V or ZEP bound, people are turning to compounding pharmacies paying only 2 to $300 a month. There is no convenient preloaded pen and it's a and syringe. You have to fill and inject with a tiny needle. Well, now drug maker, Eli Lilly is significantly lowering the prices of the two lowest doses of Z bound by giving patients that option of getting it in the vials without the P. So it's, I would say about time they move to the vials truly because you know, we access and affordability are such huge barriers um, for patients in getting these medications. Now, you won't be able to go to your pharmacy now to get these vials and syringes and there's a catch, you'll have to go through Lily's telehealth platform, Lily Direct and pay out of pocket prices in the 4 to 5.5 $100 range a month. You can't use the manufacturer's discount coupon and it will be shipped to you. They're still expensive. But to me, this signals the beginning of market competition in terms of the ultimately lowering the price and really improving access to care for these medications. So the question is, will this market competition now put pressure on the makers of we go to do the same for weight loss Wednesday. I'm Meg Faris. In some cases, it's still less costly to pay out of pocket for the prescription injections at a compounding pharmacy. We have links that can help with this story on wwltp.com.