Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are becoming popular because they help people lose weight and improve their health.
These drugs contain semaglutide, a molecule that works like a natural hormone. When people take semaglutide, they feel fuller, their digestion slows down, and they eat less.
Clinical trials have shown that these drugs can reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and even death.
But these drugs are also very expensive. A big question is: should health insurance programs like Medicaid pay for them?
Some experts think that these medications might actually save money in the long run because they can prevent other costly health problems caused by obesity.
Jason Abaluck, a health economist at Yale, led a study to find out whether semaglutide drugs help reduce overall health care costs.
His team studied more than 23,000 adult patients who were prescribed semaglutide between 2018 and 2025 at two large health systems.
They compared people who were similar in age, gender, and health, but started the drug at different times. This allowed them to see the effects of taking the drug in the real world.
The researchers found that people taking semaglutide did see health improvements like weight loss and better blood pressure and cholesterol levels, although the results were smaller than those seen in clinical trials. This might be because patients didn’t always take the medicine as regularly outside of a clinical setting.
Surprisingly, the overall cost of health care did not go down for people using semaglutide. In fact, other health care costs actually increased by about $80 per month during the second year after starting the drug. That’s about $1,000 more per year—not including the cost of the drug itself.
Why did this happen? One idea is that people taking semaglutide may have more regular doctor visits, which leads to the discovery and treatment of other health issues. For example, someone might mention knee pain during a visit, and the doctor might refer them to a specialist. This could result in extra treatments or even surgery.
It’s not clear if those added treatments are good or bad. If the extra care improves the patient’s quality of life, that’s great. But if it leads to unnecessary treatments, then it just raises costs.
Also, it’s possible that some people were prescribed semaglutide because they had other serious health problems. If so, their health care costs might have gone up even without the drug.
So what does all this mean? Abaluck believes that semaglutide is still worth using and could be one of the biggest health breakthroughs in recent years.
But he also warns that health programs need to be smart about how they cover the cost. Negotiating lower prices for these drugs could help make them more affordable for patients and for the health care system.
In short, semaglutide drugs work well, but they may not save money. Policymakers need to plan carefully so that they can help people get healthier without breaking the budget.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies about Scientists find secrets to long-term weight loss success and findings of Weight loss surgery linked to this mental disease.
For more about obesity, please read studies about Obesity drugs can help prevent weight regain after weight loss surgery and findings of Research shows big hidden cause of obesity.
The study is published in JAMA Network Open.
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