Employers offering weight-loss coverage rose in 2026 from 17% in 2024
Canadian employers are broadening access to glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs for weight loss, with the share offering that coverage rising to 37 percent in 2026 from 17 percent in 2024.
According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, coverage confined to diabetes moved the other way over the same span.
The foundation's Canadian survey found that 51 percent of employers now cover GLP-1 drugs for diabetes alone, down from 56 percent in 2025 and 66 percent in 2024.
A further 12 percent cover the drugs for other conditions such as sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease.
Carey Wooton, associate vice president of education at the International Foundation, said coverage of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs in Canada "continues to rise."
She said employers "remain tasked with meeting employee demand while mitigating rising costs."
Most employers that cover the drugs for weight loss deliver them as a prescription drug within a medical plan, at 85 percent, while 12 percent route them through a dedicated weight-management vendor and 4 percent through a supplemental drug rider.
When weighing weight-loss coverage, employers ranked obesity as a risk factor for chronic disease and its associated costs as the top consideration at 53 percent.
Long-term costs and the difficulty of measuring outcomes, and the effect of cost-control mechanisms on premiums, followed at 38 percent each.
Coverage often extends past the drugs themselves.
Plans commonly fund nutritional counselling (54 percent), other prescription drugs (43 percent), lifestyle modification programs (24 percent) and disease, case or chronic care management (21 percent), the foundation reported.
Among employers that do not cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, 17 percent are considering adding it, though 73 percent of non-covering employers exclude the drugs through a carve-out from their medical or prescription drug plan.
Some steer workers elsewhere: 15 percent encourage the use of a health care spending account, and 2 percent point employees to a direct-to-consumer platform.
The Canadian trend diverges from the United States, which the foundation tracks in a separate survey.
There, weight-loss coverage held at 36 percent, while diabetes-only coverage rose to 60 percent from 55 percent in 2025, according to the foundation.
US employers named broker, consultant or pharmacy-benefit-manager recommendations as their leading factor at 58 percent.
Costs have also grown heavier south of the border, where GLP-1 drugs accounted for 11.4 percent of annual claims in 2026, up from 6.9 percent in 2023, the foundation's US data showed.
On the US findings, Wooton said most employers do not cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss. They concentrate instead on supporting their workers' overall health.
