United States: Employers are expanding access to new, potent obesity medications for employees, but the size of the employer can significantly impact early access.
However, both employers and employees of small businesses are facing challenges in navigating this evolving health insurance coverage landscape, CNBC News reported.
More Details on the News
Thus, small businesses account for 50 percent of the total employment of employees in the US labor market and have been contributing a higher employment growth rate than big businesses for some time now.
Moreover, small business hiring has been rising steadily since Q1 2021, with a share of 53 percent among all 12.2 million total net new jobs for all workers with outlets across all employers in their average figures in line with the long-term pattern, as estimated by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, as CNBC reported.
About the Popular GLP-1 Agonist Drug
The popular obesity drugs known as GLP-1 agonists have an average monthly cost of nearly USD 1,000 and are typically needed for years by patients.
The availability of these weight-loss products is expected to increase as manufacturers ramp up production and usage continues to rise.
Studies have shown additional benefits of these drugs, ranging from addressing sleep apnea to reducing the risk of heart disease. However, with over 100 million US adults currently classified as obese, only a few can afford to pay for these drugs out of pocket, such as Wegovy from Novo Nordisk and Zepbound from Eli Lilly.
Employee Benefit Plans Covering the Drug
They analyzed a survey of 205 companies from last October by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, which showed that 76 percent of the employers who responded agreed to cover the GLP-1 diabetes drug, while only 27 percent agreed to do the same for weight loss, as CNBC reported.
However, only 13 percent of the plan sponsors said they were likely to include coverage on weight loss programs.
Covering these drugs is particularly harder for smaller employees, many of whom use off-the-shelf plans that are available via their insurance providers.
Although these plans offer coverage of GLP-1 drugs, most small businesses cannot afford to adopt such solutions.
Despite employee expectations and the desires of small employers, there are pros and cons to including this coverage, according to Shawn Gremminger, president and chief executive of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, a nonprofit association representing purchaser-led organizations.