The GLP-1 Dilemma: Soaring Drug Costs, Rising Insurance Rates, and the Hidden Risks of Skipping Lifestyle Changes

Let's start by breaking down how the GLP-1 (Ozempic, Wegovy, Monjaro, Saxenda, etc) medications work without the complicated medical lingo- essentially, they slow down the way food moves through your stomach making you feel fuller longer. Great concept in theory but once you stop the drug, that appetite returns and often it’s an aggressive return and patients feel starving.

I don’t know about you but starving for me is a very primitive feeling and gives most the strong desire to eat whatever is in sight. I’m sure you have heard or maybe even said once or twice in your life, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a cow.”

Pastures and cows aside, this is where weight regain will often happen. Many users find themselves eating more than before, especially if their household food environment hasn’t changed. Data confirms that long-term adherence is challenging due to high costs, side effects, and the idea of needing lifelong injections or pills to manage appetite.

Now let’s back track for a minute, I did mention side effects, and this is often times where patients' eyes glaze over but let’s be real, a medication with the mechanism to make food move more slowly through your stomach has to have some side effects right?  In this case those side effects are often nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle loss, gallstones, and even potential risks for pancreatic and thyroid cancers. (GLP-1 receptor agonist-associated tumor adverse events: A real-world study from 2004 to 2021 based on FAERS - PMC)

While GLP-1s can be effective for short-term weight loss and glucose control, their benefits diminish without sustainable lifestyle changes i.e.: if you haven’t changed your habits when your appetite returns, you revert back to the same habits that contributed to a high body mass index, and many do so with a vengeance.

Now let’s talk about how they are making your insurance premiums go up. The theory behind these drugs is to lower the hundreds of thousands of dollars a patient and the healthcare system will spend over a lifetime managing the chronic conditions often associated with obesity such as high cholesterol, diabetes and hypertension to name a few.  However, if that is not occurring and patients do not lose weight long term, we lose that long term financial and physical benefit mentioned above. Now we have drugs with high costs that are placing a significant strain on the healthcare system leaving insurers, employers, and government programs struggling to keep up.

Ultimately, GLP-1s should be viewed as a tool rather than a cure. Without addressing the root causes of obesity which vary by the individual and household—the healthcare system risks further financial strain while failing to provide sustainable solutions. A more effective approach would integrate medication with an approach created for the individual person and household to create lasting health benefits without an unsustainable economic burden. Health, obesity and chronic diseases are not a one size fits all issue and there is not a one size fits all solution. It simply is not as easy as just eat right and exercise.

Our goal at Room For Health and our non for profit Health Is Home is to help provide that solution and are beginning the collaborative relationships we will need with community stakeholders, insurance companies and government officials to make that happen. Contact us today if you are a person, household, individual, or organization that would like to work on a healthier America together!