Covering the cost of pricey GLP-1 weight loss drugs could pay off for employers by cutting overall medical spending for people taking the medications, but not until year two, according to a massive analysis of health insurance claims by Aon released on Wednesday.
Aon (AON+0.08%), a global professional services firm, studied U.S. health insurance claims data for more than 50 million people from 2022-2024 and determined that, after an initial jump in spending related to the start of injectable GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic (NVO+1.55%) and Wegovy, cost growth for the treatment group trended at half the rate of a control group in the second year.
Aon said the GLP-1 users experienced a 44% reduction in hospitalizations caused by cardiovascular events such as strokes and heart attacks, as well as lower claims for pneumonia, inflammatory bowel disease, osteoporosis, and alcohol and substance use.
The analysis did show more claims by GLP-1users for arthritis, sleeping problems, and thyroid and esophageal disorders. Aon theorized that, by losing weight, patients started accessing a broader range of other medical treatments.
GLP-1 drugs can cost $12,000 per year or more, and few insurers or employers cover the cost of prescriptions outside of diabetes, their approved use. Nevertheless, the use of GLP-medications among U.S. adults without diabetes more than tripled between 2018 and 2022.
Annual spending on the drugs surged over that period from $1.6 billion to $5.8 billion. Those numbers could be much higher now: In a May 2024 survey of 1,479 U.S. adults, about 12% said they’d taken a GLP-1 agonist.
“When you consider the indirect costs of obesity, such as the treatment of comorbidities and absenteeism, the overall economic burden is striking,” Farheen Dam, Aon’s head of Health Solutions for North America, said in a statement. Approximately 40% of U.S. adults are considered obese.
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