PwC will drop cowl for weight-loss medication from worker well being plans

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PwC has instructed US employees it would not cowl the price of weight-loss medication for workers until they’ve diabetes, the most recent massive employer to wrestle with the hovering payments for the brand new medicines.

The Large 4 accounting and consulting agency will restrict protection ranging from July, staff learnt once they went to resume their annual advantages, sparking upset amongst these affected.

PwC joins a rising checklist of companies with curbs on entry to the costly medicines, as they turn out to be more and more common. Its medical insurance will not cowl GLP-1s for weight reduction, weight administration and related circumstances, it mentioned.

“They principally need us to attend to turn out to be diabetic,” one worker instructed the FT, saying it amounted to discrimination towards these battling well being issues owing to weight, which might be exacerbated by their work.

“We work so onerous and do such lengthy hours sitting in entrance of a pc, it isn’t conducive to an lively life-style,” the particular person mentioned. “I don’t suppose the weight problems analysis is being handled respectfully.”

One other described the choice as “grasping”, saying GLP-1 protection was one cause they determined to affix PwC just lately. “Now I really feel silly for signing with them,” the particular person mentioned.

PwC mentioned in an announcement to the FT that it will proceed to cowl its staff’ GLP-1 drugs “when prescribed for circumstances aligned with established requirements of care, similar to kind 2 diabetes, however [they] is not going to be included beneath pharmacy protection for weight administration”.

It added: “This alteration displays broader business traits and the necessity to handle quickly rising prices, whereas sustaining entry to clinically obligatory remedies. We’ll proceed to observe the exterior panorama to make considerate advantages choices that can help our folks broadly and assist hold protection sustainable over time.”

Whereas US healthcare plans usually embrace some protection for GLP-1s, entry varies. A survey final yr by the Peterson Heart on Healthcare and KFF discovered 43 per cent of enormous employers cowl the medication for weight reduction, up from 28 per cent in 2024, however “many employers reported that use was larger than anticipated and protecting them considerably elevated prescription drug price”.

Weight-loss medication are the top-selling medicines within the pharmaceutical business and are dominated by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Whereas each corporations have signed offers with US President Donald Trump to decrease costs for weight problems medication, they continue to be costly for medical insurance plans, particularly given their recognition.

Different employers have scrapped GLP-1 protection this yr. The not-for-profit well being insurer Blue Cross Blue Protect of Massachusetts dropped GLP-1 protection for its employees until folks have diabetes, saying it will in any other case be “unsustainable for our enterprise”.

PwC has just lately been pitching its consulting companies to different employers wrestling with the dilemma.

“Over the previous yr, GLP-1s moved from a scientific therapy to a cultural phenomenon,” it wrote in a advertising and marketing doc. “Protection choices that may appear simple on the floor — cowl or don’t cowl — carry penalties that ripple throughout workforce well being, plan sustainability, and worker belief.”