There is growing evidence that weight loss drugs have the capacity to prevent critical illnesses from occurring, which is leading to brokers to talk employers about the trade-offs of paying for such treatments for their workers.
This is according to a panel debate which took place during a webinar organised by Bupa Global this morning which discussed what advanced drugs mean for international private medical insurance (IPMI).
While there is emerging evidence that these drugs are not without their side effects, the panel revealed they do offer secondary benefits.
Secondary benefits
Dr Robin Clark, medical director Bupa Global and UK Insurance, (pictured fourth from left) said: “What we are learning about GLP-1s is that while they are being predominantly used for diabetes and weight loss, actually there’s other secondary benefits coming from those.
“So they are improving outcomes in heart disease, strokes, kidney disease.
“So over time we will probably see the indications for those changes as well.”
Talking about trade-offs
Providing a broker perspective Andy Rallis, executive lead for human capital analytics at Aon (pictured on screen), maintained employers are seeking to maximise every dollar invested.
“That’s typically how we start the conversation as we discuss trade-offs assuming clinical fit,” Rallis revealed.
“We discuss trade-offs of covering blockbuster drugs, making it available and putting the programmes in place to add guardrails like adherence or alternatives.”
But he added that there is also a conversation to be had about the positive aspects that offset the negative costs within health spend.
“With GLP-1s having benefits around cardiovascular disease, we can talk about trade-offs there, but we also start to talk about trade offs with retention or productivity,” he continued.
“Because ultimately, when we talk about to clients, they’re crafting their insurance coverage as part of something that is really benefits, compensation and culture – and so if you can get a gain somewhere else, then the cost may be something that they are willing to absorb.”
Major factor in chronic diseases
Dr Emma Harvey, vice president-elect of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (pictured furthest right), added that many people fail to realise that obesity is a major factor for a number of chronic diseases.
“Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, even a lot of cancers can be linked to obesity,” Harvey said.
“So if you can reduce that future healthcare burden by investing now in say one or two years of GLP therapy, whatever flavour of choice you have, you may be saving the healthcare system 20 or 30 years treatment for the future diseases that are linked with obesity,” she continued.
Side effects
But such treatments are not without their drawbacks as TV broadcaster Dr Rosemary Leonard (pictured second from left) pointed out.
“Only recently in the last few weeks we’ve gathered that weight loss drugs can affect the absorption of hormones taken by mouth,” Leonard said.
“Now this is completely new, completely unexpected.
“It does spread out on social media and the mainstream media, but it’s very important that that information stream – and it’s an accurate information stream – gets out to patients so that they are more aware that actually these are wonderful novel therapies,. They can help a great deal of illnesses, but there can be downsides to it as well.
“And it’s getting that information out in a balanced way and that is always the challenge.”