Quebec health minister says obesity is not an illness, despite expert opinion

Experts are urging Quebec to recognize obesity as a disease and cover Ozempic under public health insurance, but the government is still reviewing the issue.

Tamra Canty-Currie has been taking Ozempic for almost a year now, and she’s lost 40 pounds.

She says the weekly injection has changed her life.

“I’m able to sit on the floor and play with my kids. I’m able to walk up a staircase with them and not be out of breath,” she told CTV News.

Canty-Currie says her doctor prescribed it after trying all sorts of weight loss techniques. She pays out of pocket, and it costs her $450 every month.

Ozempic is currently only covered by public health insurance (RAMQ) when used to treat type 2 diabetes.

“What’s quite strange is, you know, obesity is directly linked to a lot of the diseases that they cover medications for,” said Canty-Currie.

In a statement emailed to CTV News, a spokesperson for Health Minister Christian Dube said, “we are very sensitive to people living with obesity-related issues....” but Quebec “...does not recognize obesity as a disease.”

The comment follows calls to acknowledge obesity as a chronic disease.

Opposition critic for healthy living Enrico Ciccone filed a petition with 1,900 signatures calling for this at the National Assembly in December. It also asked the government to make medication accessible to better control obesity.

In January, 56 international experts defined clinical obesity as a disease.

Jean-Pierre Despres was one of those experts.

“We have a lot of expertise in the province of Quebec. We are known internationally for our expertise in terms of science, of prevention. It’s just that we don’t apply it,” he said.

Other medical professionals believe the government is making this decision to save money.

“Treating that population, if we want to use a treatment sort of approach, would be an enormous cost to the health care system,” said Simon Wing, a medicine professor at McGill University and MUHC endocrinologist.

But Wing warns that the cost will only increase later on.

He says obesity can lead to other medical conditions like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Ciccone says reimbursement is not meant for everyone but people who really need it.

“Some of the of the people who have this illness, obesity, will sometimes want to have surgery and they have to lose a certain amount of weight before they get the surgery, and sometimes they can’t lose the weight by themselves,” he said.

Quebec’s Health Ministry says its studying a report from the Institut national d’excellence en santé et en services sociaux (INESSS). The INESSS recommends the province conduct a pilot project to determine if Ozempic should be covered by public health insurance.

A decision people like Canty-Currie are waiting on.