Weight-Loss Drugs Are Gobbling Up Small Town Budgets
6/29/202619 min
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:
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- Ozempic Is a Hit. So Why Is the Drugmaker’s CEO Out?
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRyan Knutson· Host0:00
Hey, it's Ryan. Our colleague, Imani Moise, is here to guest host today's episode. Here it is.
Imani Moise· Host0:06
[instrumental music] About an hour outside of Boston, there's a picturesque small town surrounded by forested hills called Belchertown. That's where Lisa Lessard Beerson lives.
Lisa Lessard Beerson· Guest0:20
My spouse and I affectionately call it Belshare Town or B Town to get around [laughs] the, uh, Belchertown connotations.
Imani Moise· Host0:30
Lisa sits on something called the Select Board. It's a small town version of a city council that serves Belchertown's fifteen thousand 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.
Lisa Lessard Beerson· Guest0:50
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.
Imani Moise· Host0:59
But then came a surprise invoice.
Lisa Lessard Beerson· Guest1:02
[instrumental music] I got a phone call from the town manager. It came to him first, and he immediately reached out to me.
Imani Moise· Host1:10
The bill was from the town's health insurance administrator. It said Belchertown owed an additional nine hundred thousand dollars in health insurance premiums.
Lisa Lessard Beerson· Guest1:23
Which is a major fiscal event for a town our size.