New York City Utterly Screwed Up Insurance for Employees Taking GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs
Image by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty / Futurism After insurance for New York City employees began covering GLP-1 weight-loss injectables at the beginning of the year, nearly 1,000 city workers and their dependents began using the drugs. And now they’re being told that coverage was accidental and they need to stop. In a statement to Gothamist, a city spokesperson admitted that municipal employee insurance coverage for these fullness-mimicking medicines was made “in error.” “The city never planned to cover these drugs,” spokesperson Liz Garcia told the website, “due to the steep costs that would fall on city employees.” While those who take GLP-1s for diabetes will continue to have their medication covered by municipal insurer EmblemHealth, those who use them strictly for weight loss will be left out in the cold. For longtime NYC Department of Education employee Sarah Kalemkerian, that means her Zepbound prescription will go from costing $25 every three months to $550 per month — a price increase she can’t afford on her own. Kalemkerian told Gothamist that she’d tried every fad diet before …