GLP-1s drive 20% of prescription spending at large self-funded plans

Use of GLP-1 agonists and similar weight-loss drugs continued to grow in the employer-sponsored plans, according to a new report from plan administrator, Benefitfocus.

About 6% of the plan enrollees took Wegovy, Zepbound or similar drugs to control their weight, up from 5.1% in 2024.

The weight-loss drugs accounted for 20.3% of the plans’ prescription spending, up from 17.5% the previous year.

See also: Employers scramble to manage exploding costs of GLP-1s

GLP-1 usage demand has risen, partly because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved use of the drugs as a treatment for heart disease, and also because of “aggressive direct-to-consumer marketing that has fueled member demand,” Benefitfocus analysts wrote in the report.

Covering GLP-1s for an enrollee who took the drug cost the plans surveyed an average of $7,400 per year.

The analysis included data from 316 employers and 1.8 million employees, and focused on self-insured plans that covered at least 1,000 full-time employees.

What it means: As of last year, GLP-1s were still a major cause of spending increases at large, self-insured employer health plans.

GLP-1 spending may be in billions

About half of Americans are overweight or obese.

Americans in the general population are probably less likely to have had coverage for GLP-1 agonists in 2025 than enrollees in large-employer health plans, but Benefitfocus may exclude people who paid for the drugs entirely out of pocket.

If 6% of the 270 million adult Americans took GLP-1s in 2025, at an average cost of $7,400 per patient, total 2025 U.S. GLP-1 spending would amount to $120 billion.

David Joyner, the chief executive officer of CVS Health, predicted at a U.S. House hearing in 2024 that GLP-1 agonists could soon generate about $1 trillion in annual health care spending if policymakers failed to do something about GLP-1 prices.

This new analysis appears to support earlier reports suggesting Americans may already be spending more than $50 billion on GLP-1 agonists per year.

According to eHealth, 5.1% of the U.S. adults surveyed in November 2025 were taking a GLP-1 agonist or similar drug at the time. If the drugs cost an average of $5,000, that could imply total 2025 U.S. GLP-1 spending of $67 billion.

Meanwhile, CBIZ estimated that GLP-1 agonists accounted for about 17% of 2024 employee pharmacy claims at employer-sponsored plans that it served that year.

U.S. commercial health plans spent about $1,600 on prescription drugs per enrollee in 2024, according to UnitedHealth Group. If 17% of all 2024 commercial plan pharmacy spending paid for GLP-1 agonists, that implies the drugs accounted for about $50 billion in 2024 commercial plan spending.

This article was originally published on BenefitsPRO, a sister site of HR Executive. For more content like this delivered to your inbox, sign up for BenefitsPRO newsletters here.

The post GLP-1s drive 20% of prescription spending at large self-funded plans appeared first on HR Executive.

Read MoreHR Executive