COLUMBUS, Miss. — April Hines has battled with her weight since she was a teenager.

But in the past couple of years, she’s fallen from 600 pounds to 385, and her blood pressure and blood sugar levels are down, too. “I’m not as fatigued as I used to be, and I’ve been able to go back to church,” she said.

Hines, 46, credits her weight loss to Trulicity, part of a new class of expensive weight loss drugs known as GLP-1s, and her Medicaid coverage for it. “It’s a blessing,” she said.

In a state where the obesity rate ranks among the highest in the country, many health providers were thrilled when Mississippi Medicaid in 2023 began covering GLP-1s for people 12 and older. Only 13 states cover the drugs for Medicaid enrollees for obesity, and Mississippi’s Medicaid program typically has some

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