Employers surveyed revealed that 36% cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. The same percentage as last year. Up a staggering two percentage points from 2024.
This counts as news because someone at CNBC needed to file a story before lunch. The headline says employers aren't expanding coverage. The data shows they aren't doing anything at all. They're sitting there. Frozen. Like a deer in headlights if the deer had to explain the cost increase to shareholders.
The real story hides in the second part. Employers are finding ways around it. Translation: they discovered the word exclusion still works in insurance contracts. Revolutionary stuff. Took three years and probably six consultants billing $400 an hour to figure out they could just say no.
GLP-1s cost about $1,000 a month. Employers looked at that number and looked at their workforce and did math that a fifth grader could handle. Then they commissioned a survey about it. Then they paid someone to analyze the survey. Then CNBC wrote about the survey. All of this happened so we could learn that 64% of employers don't want to spend $12,000 per employee per year on weight loss drugs.
Retail traders saw this headline and immediately checked if there's a way to trade employer health insurance policy decisions. There isn't. They're searching anyway. One of them is googling "GLP-1 penny stocks" right now. His name is Trevor. He has $847 in his Robinhood account and a dream.
The coverage rate moved two points in two years. At this pace, universal employer coverage arrives in 2057. Mark your calendars. Buy long-dated calls. Tell your grandchildren you were there when it barely f*cking moved.
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