Many small towns across the country added GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to their employee health insurance plans. Now, some of those towns are being hit with huge unexpected premiums as use of the drugs continues to grow. Imani Moise speaks to a selectwoman from Belchertown, MA who helped navigate her town through a devastating bill and WSJ’s Owen Tucker-Smith takes us through the economics for towns around the country. Further Listening: - Trillion Dollar Shot - Novo Nordisk&#x27;s CEO Has a Comeback Plan - Ozempic Is a Hit. So Why Is the Drugmaker’s CEO Out? Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weight-Loss Drugs Are Gobbling Up Small Town Budgets

The Journal.

[SPEAKER_09] Hey, it's Ryan. Our colleague Imani Moise is here to guest host today's episode. Here it is.

[SPEAKER_11] About an hour outside of Boston, there's a picturesque small town surrounded by forested hills called Belchertown. That's where Lisa Lessard Pearson lives.

[SPEAKER_02] My spouse and I affectionately call it Belchertown or B-Town to get around the Belchertown

[SPEAKER_11] connotations. Lisa sits on something called the Select Board. It's a small town version of a city council that serves Belchertown's 15,000 people. And after years of saving up reserves, the town had finally scraped together enough money for a few key infrastructure projects, like repairing the roofs and the lights at the schools and updating the senior center.

[SPEAKER_02] These are basics. This isn't like fun, sexy projects. This is like the real work stuff that needs to be done to keep the town going. But then came a surprise invoice. I got a phone call from the town manager. It came to him first, and he immediately reached

[SPEAKER_11] out to me. The bill was from the town's health insurance administrator. It said Belcher Town owed an additional $900,000 in health insurance premiums.

[SPEAKER_02] Which is a major fiscal event for a town our size.

[SPEAKER_11] What was going through your mind at first when you saw these numbers?

[SPEAKER_02] I was shocked. I was absolutely shocked. And my first reaction is, how can they do that?

[SPEAKER_11] At first, the board didn't even know what they were being charged for. But eventually, they learned that their health insurance administrator was facing massive deficits. A major cause? The growing use of GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

[SPEAKER_02] After all the careful planning we had done, and the months we spent working on the budget, it was devastating.

Weight-Loss Drugs Are Gobbling Up Small Town Budgets

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Weight-Loss Drugs Are Gobbling Up Small Town Budgets

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.