Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2025

This bill aims to make it easier for people on Medicare to get help losing weight and managing obesity. It would let more types of health providers—like physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, and registered dietitians—offer covered, face-to-face counseling for obesity. It would also allow approved, evidence-based community programs to provide this counseling, as long as a doctor or primary care clinician refers the patient and stays in the loop. Counseling could happen in medical offices, hospital clinics, or approved community sites that protect patient privacy. The bill also allows Medicare drug plans to cover weight-loss and obesity medicines for people who need them, something they generally do not cover now. The change to drug coverage would start two years after the bill becomes law.

The bill responds to rising obesity rates and health costs among older adults on Medicare, and it pushes the health department to regularly report on progress and recommend ways to better coordinate programs to prevent and treat obesity in adults .

• Who is affected: People with Medicare who have obesity or are overweight, and the health providers and programs that counsel them.
• What changes: More providers and approved community programs could offer covered obesity counseling; Medicare drug plans could cover obesity and weight-loss medicines .
• When: The new drug coverage would begin two years after the law takes effect; progress reports would start one year after and then every two years.