JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Mississippi has long been one of the most obese states in the country with nearly 40% of its population struggling with obesity.

While doctors across the state have pledged to get Mississippi back in shape, one doctor shared just how hard it is to treat the disease in the state.

Some patients are being sent home with nothing when they seek help. Insurance exclusions from some of the state’s largest providers are among the many barriers.

“I have patients coming in that sometimes are three, four, five hundred pounds and have multiple different co-morbidities, and their insurance has an exclusion for anti-obesity medication. There’s no other disease process that I’m really aware of, like obesity, where we don’t have easy access to some type of treatment. You know, if insurance plans were excluding care for diabetes or breast cancer or literally anything else, we would probably be out there rioting in the streets because it just doesn’t make sense,” said Christy Davis, DNP, co-chair of the Mississippi Obesity Society.

Another barrier is the state’s off-label prescription ban. The drug Ozempic is only FDA approved to treat type 2 diabetes but contains the same active ingredient in the FDA approved weight loss drug Wegovy.

“What we’re talking about is two name brands for the same drug. One name brand is only FDA approved for diabetes, and one name brand is only FDA approved for weight loss. In Mississippi because we are restricted for writing off label, we are unable to write Ozempic for weight loss, but it is the same medication,” Davis explained.

She said these barriers leave a majority of Mississippians struggling with obesity with no option.

“It’s very frustrating as a provider that they have these medications that are highly effective. That would be life changing for some people, and I can’t give them to them. So every day in my clinic, I have patients that are sitting here crying because I can’t help them,” Davis said.