Medications like Ozempic and Wegovy may offer significant heart health benefits — and not just through weight loss.
According to the British Heart Foundation, two studies presented at the 2024 European Congress on Obesity showed that semaglutide medications may help reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other serious cardiac complications. The studies followed more than 17,000 overweight or obese adults who did not have diabetes, but received weekly semaglutide injections.
On average, the participants saw sustained weight loss of about 10 percent on average after four years, regardless of their age or body size. Participants were also less likely to experience life-threatening heart events like heart attack or stroke, regardless of how much weight they lost. Even patients who did not lose weight at all decreased their risk, possibly due to the drug's effects on blood sugar, blood pressure, and inflammation of the heart.
But most U.S. insurers have restricted coverage of these drugs to patients with diabetes and pre-diabetes, and everyone else must shoulder the steep out-of-pocket costs — around $1,000 per month or more, according to GoodRx. But Medicare and Medicaid may begin covering anti-obesity drugs in 2025 if a new rule that would expand coverage takes effect. The rule, which the Biden administration proposed in November 2024, reclassifies obesity drugs as treatment for chronic disease.