United States: A new survey shows that only 1 out of 5 big companies in the U.S. include the expensive weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Zepbound in their health insurance plans. This means many people might not get help to pay for these medicines.
The report, shared in the journal Health Affairs, also found that about 1 in 3 companies that do cover these drugs say it greatly affects how much they spend on prescriptions.
As reported by HealthDay, poor health tied to obesity is avoidable, and the fact that this segment of the population is pretty large in the United States makes these medications useful, according to the survey results. Risks include the costs associated with the medication and more to the point, whether or not individuals require the medication for a lifetime.
“Employers are really trying to balance a lot right now,” Matthew Rae, the associate director for the program on the health care marketplace at KFF, told NBC News. People are attempting to determine whether these employee benefits, possible health improvements and the realistic cost of these drugs for employers and employees align. And at this point, all of those things aren’t sorted out.”
Dr. Susan Spratt, an endocrinologist from the Population Health Management Office at Duke Health in North Carolina said of the findings: “It’s quite disheartening.”
“To some people who are financially well off, they will cough up $1,000 every month for this medication,” she added. “The only thing that we are doing is reinforcing existing inequalities by limiting patients’ ability to get their hands on potentially vital medication.”
52% out of the population obtain health insurance through their employers, with KFF putting the figure at 154 million. The poll taken from January through July received input from over 2,100 employers with at least 200 employees who provide health insurance.
Employers with medical plans said they either don’t know whether the plans cover such drugs or do not cover them at all, while a measly 4 percent said they do.
America’s largest firms and almost 5,000 or more workers who actually didn’t do much bette and a little more than one in a quarter said they provide coverage for the drugs while the rest say they do not.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40% of adults in the United States have obesity. Further, and unlike general obesity, which has begun to stagnate in recent years, there have been 10 percent increases in severe obesity from 7.7% to almost 9.7% .
Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight-loss clinic in the North Carolina said there is a tendency to blame employers and insurance companies for the last of the coverage, but that blame is misdirected.
The root of this problem is cost very Plain and Simple, “McGowan told NBC News. “It’s economically and this impossible to provide coverage for everyone in the need without drastically hiking rates of putting plans at risk of bankruptcy.”
