Forbes November 26, 2024
News of the Biden administration plan to require Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance to cover weight loss drugs could trigger private employers to do the same for their obese employees.
Currently, fewer than one in five large employers are covering such prescriptions despite the boom in popularity of expensive GLP-1 drugs to treat weight loss, according to a KFF analysis earlier this year.
But employee benefits analysts say employers could follow suit. And those who follow the Biden administration’s move to expand access to anti-obesity medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which are produced by the drugmaker Novo Nordisk, and Mounjaro and Zepbound, made by Eli Lilly, should be prepared to pay bigger health insurance premiums for their...