Blockbuster weight-loss medication slashed from NC state plan over ballooning prices

Wegovy is an injectable prescription weight loss medicine that has helped people with obesity.

Enlarge / Wegovy is an injectable prescription weight reduction medication that has helped folks with weight problems. (credit score: Getty | Michael Siluk)

The well being plan for North Carolina state workers will cease overlaying blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss medication, together with Wegovy and Zepbound, as a result of—in keeping with the plan’s board of trustees—the medication are just too costly.

Final week, the board voted 4-Three to finish all protection of GLP-1 drugs for weight reduction on April 1. If the protection is dropped, it’s believed to be the primary main state well being plan to finish protection of the favored however expensive weight-loss medication. The plan will proceed to pay for GLP-1 drugs prescribed to deal with diabetes, together with Ozempic.

The North Carolina State Well being Plan covers almost 740,000 folks, together with academics, state workers, retirees, and their relations. In 2023, month-to-month premiums from the plan ranged from $25 for base protection for a person to as much as $720 for premium household protection. Members prescribed Wegovy paid a co-pay of between $30 and $50 per 30 days for the drug, whereas the plan’s price was round $800 a month.

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