To Pay for Weight Loss Drugs, Some Take Second Jobs, Ring Up Credit-Card Debts

livemint.com:

Each month Tina Marie Porter pays about $1,000 out of pocket for Mounjaro. To make up for the extra monthly expense, the 49-year-old director of operations takes on more assignments and seeks odd jobs. Porter belongs to a growing population of people taking extra measures to cover the full or almost-full price of popular drugs used for weight loss, after their insurance denied them coverage.

“It is life changing," said Porter, 49, of Kansas City, Mo. “But I shouldn’t have to pay because my insurance won’t cover it. It is making me healthier.

It makes no sense." Across the country, some consumers are paying $10,000 a year or more to get popular drugs from Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk. Patients report taking on second jobs, racking up credit cards and cutting back on travel or family expenses to afford Lilly’s Mounjaro, a diabetes drug being used off-label for weight loss.

They are also self paying for off-label use of Novo’s diabetes drug, Ozempic, and sister drug Wegovy, which is approved for weight loss. The willingness of consumers to pay thousands of dollars of their own money underscores the public’s appetite for more effective weight-loss medications, especially for people who have long struggled with obesity. The injectable medications can result in patients losing roughly more than 15% of their body weight.

Consumers are paying significant sums out of pocket in large part because insurers are denying coverage for weight loss. In addition, the drugmakers are charging the full list price of a drug instead of offering any of the discounts they give to health plans. Insurers may deny coverage of weight-loss drugs or drugs that are used off-label for weight loss.