Medicare Made Weight-Loss Drugs $50 A Month—Now Amazon, CVS And Walmart Race To Fill Prescriptions

Aug 06, 2026 08:55 PM - 1 hour ago 1

Topline

Amazon connected Thursday announced its drugstore would administer celebrated GLP-1 weight-loss narcotics to eligible Medicare patients for $50 a month—a sweeping displacement that has slashed the costs of these medications by arsenic overmuch arsenic 97% from their highest price, which had prevented entree for millions of Americans.

Amazon’s drugstore now offers steep discounts for weight-loss drugs, down from arsenic overmuch arsenic $1,500.

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Key Facts

Amazon Pharmacy will now dispense Wegovy, Zepbound KwikPen and Foundayo—Eli Lilly’s caller regular weight-loss pill—to qualifying Medicare patients for $50 each period nether the national Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Program, which runs done Dec. 31, 2027.

That marks a steep value simplification for the medications, which first costs betwixt $1,200 and $1,500 a month.

The value reductions will prevention customers astir $300 million, Amazon said.

Amazon said it would automate the full enrollment process — including eligibility verification, anterior authorization, and billing—after a medicine is submitted electronically, and will connection same-day transportation crossed much than 3,100 U.S. cities without a Prime membership.

CVS Health connected Wednesday announced an overhaul to its GLP-1 offerings, cutting its integer weight-loss appointments to $29—which the patient claimed to beryllium the cheapest connected the market—and partnering pinch Eli Lilly to connection transparent pricing for Zepbound and Foundayo.

Since April, Walmart has announced plans to grow GLP-1 entree done its pharmacies and said its pharmacists would beryllium capable to support recently eligible Medicare beneficiaries.

big number

More than 66 million. That’s really galore group successful the U.S. get their wellness sum from Medicare, according to the security program. About 72% of adults property 20 and older are overweight aliases obese, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information arsenic of August 2023.

key background

The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge Program, which launched July 1, covers weight-loss supplier costs for patients pinch obesity. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services absorbs the financial risks for the first 18 months alternatively than passing it connected to backstage insurers. Expanding entree to weight-loss drugs, for illustration Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo, comes arsenic Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk still complaint betwixt $199 and $499 a period for patients extracurricular the Medicare program. Amazon has pushed itself into the GLP-1 market, announcing successful April a GLP-1 guidance programme that featured insured pricing starting astatine $25 a month.