GLP-1s Are Breaking Life Insurance

63 alexslobodnik 34 7/13/2025, 6:31:47 PM glp1digest.com ↗

Comments (34)

hiAndrewQuinn · 7m ago
So... There's a miracle drug powerful enough to robustly lower people's all cause mortality enough to throw off the life insurance underwriters, but since health insurance and life insurance are industries with vastly different time preferences, this is not a good thing for the life insurers because people just keep getting off the magic longevity drug. Because, admittedly, it kind of sucks in the moment to be on.

And I'm guessing just based on my own experience paying for term life that the actual premia differences aren't actually enough in most cases for the life insurer to simply pay out of pocket themselves; the differences probably add up to a few hundred per year per customer, whereas a year's worth of a GLP-1 agonist probably costs a couple thousand (for now, in 2025, and probably dropping rapidly).

Huh. Second order implementation details aside, this is an extremely fortunate turn of events for us.

firesteelrain · 7m ago
I was on Mounjaro for two months. I was also dieting and walking 10k steps a day. I lost 25 lb and my A1C went down to 5.0 from 5.7. All my cholesterol numbers were in range. I stopped taking it and lost 25 more. I haven’t regained the weight. People who gain it back did not learn the lesson and did not effectively change their habits. You need the discipline
Sparkle-san · 49s ago
Giving people the magic cheat code drug seems antithetical to helping them develop the habits and discipline for long term lifestyle change.
petesergeant · 32s ago
> People who gain it back did not learn the lesson and did not effectively change their habits. You need the discipline

This is deeply misguided. I’m glad that the little assist was enough for you, but if “healthy habits” were enough then people who’d lost weight the traditional way would keep it off.

arn3n · 31m ago
Obesity is highly correlated with other medical conditions, from cancer to diabetes to heart disease. I wonder if there is a point at which it is cheaper for health insurance companies to offer subsidized or even free GLP-1s to patients than pay out for other specialized medications. For example, my insurance covers flu shots in my community every year because it's presumably less expensive to pay for the shots compared to the increased rate of hospitalization that the flu causes.
aqme28 · 20m ago
You’re thinking too highly about the incentives of the US healthcare system. Since insurance is tied to your employer (and therefore changing every few years), and most people die on Medicare, there’s not much incentive for insurance companies to pay for preventative care that won’t actually help you for several decades.
ethbr1 · 8m ago
That’s one reason the ACA shifted it to a mandatory (in most cases) category: https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/

Minimal, but minimal progress in the US was/is still progress.

jameshart · 6m ago
We have no idea what the long tern actuarial numbers are of 30 year GLP-1 use though.
dragonwriter · 8m ago
> For example, my insurance covers flu shots in my community every year because it's presumably less expensive to pay for the shots compared to the increased rate of hospitalization that the flu causes.

In the US, insurance companies are generally legally mandated to cover ACIP recommended vaccines at no cost to the insured, which includes flu vaccines for everyone six months or older without contraindications.

idontwantthis · 15m ago
You presume incorrectly. The flu vaccine has been covered for free because the federal government required it. RFK Jr. fired the entire CDC panel that created the requirement and replaced them with antivaxers. There’s a good chance it won’t be covered soon.
hammock · 4m ago
Covered for the patient yes. For free, no.
throwaway019254 · 8s ago
Is there any research on whether GLP-1s are also beneficial for generally healthy and not overweight people?
romaaeterna · 11m ago
The problem (not new with GLP-1s) is that people lose weight, get life insurance, and then regain.

The biggest part of that equation is regain part. Most people quit GLP-1s because of costs. Let's fix that.

vslira · 27m ago
I've always felt that there's some trade to be done here, with life and health insurers basically giving glp-1 et all for free bc they lower the cost of everything else

edit: and then Big Annuity lobbying to oppose this

lesam · 15m ago
Aren’t “Big Life Insurance” and “Big Annuity” pretty much the same companies?
meltyness · 26m ago
Well I guess a GLP-1 pacemaker would address this. A lifetime of doses weighs at much as a nickel?
MPSimmons · 3m ago
I believe it has to be kept at refrigerated temperatures over its relatively short shelf-life (1 year, I believe).
almosthere · 6m ago
so surreal reading comments... a month after non-stop threads about glp causing a billion issues, everyone is talking about how wonderful they are again.

humanity

toomuchtodo · 35m ago
It sounds like aligning incentives here is requiring the weight stay off for the policy to remain in effect with an annual physical for monitoring, similar to what employers require for health insurance premium reductions. Point in time underwriting is suboptimal considering current state of the art of GLP-1s (unless newer protocols that can update metabolic profiles are delivered soon).
prasadjoglekar · 29m ago
Or life insurers paying for ongoing GLP-1s instead of potentially the health insurer.

But to your broader point, at least in the US, incentive mis-alignment on all healthcare and health insurance is possibly irredeemably broken.

llm_nerd · 28m ago
This is a fun read, however-

"Life insurers can predict when you'll die with about 98% accuracy."

This conclusion isn't supported by the linked document. The document instead is talking about expected vs actual deaths among demographic groups as a whole, not individual people. And that expected vs actual is just history + trends. This doesn't mean that insurance can say that Joe Blow is going to die in June of 2027 with "98% accuracy", obviously.

astrange · 1m ago
> This doesn't mean that insurance can say that Joe Blow is going to die in June of 2027 with "98% accuracy", obviously.

Pretty easy to predict if you're willing to make it happen.

PaulDavisThe1st · 19m ago
Put a little differently, they can predict that of your cohort (defined somehow), after June 2027, only X percent of you will still be alive.

Will you be one of them? Click here to find out!

jgalt212 · 35m ago
I guess, but this is sort of the same as going on a statin to get your cholesterol down for a better insurance rate. Then going off because of reasons...
paul7986 · 10m ago
I believe AI along with smart glasses that shows and calculates your daily caloric intake will be a substitute to the Ozempics.

With AI glasses doing this automatically for you upon seeing what your eating without u having to do anything some people may be shocked to learn how many calories they consume daily.

Currently, it's too time consuming now for the majority to do (i use GPT via texting it or talking to it to keep track as I eat out daily at healthy chains) but if it was done automagically I believe it definitely would be a substitute to Ozempic. I bet some or more would use that easily captured data that's shown to them (in the glasses or on their mobile device) to strive, make and possibly compete with their friends/family to eat less calories and carry less weight on them (be healthier). You can train your body to eat less to a lot less and for some that would definitely help them shed weight. The glasses could as well deduct calories burned from your daily walk, jog, etc.

*Being downvoted hmmm do you think AI by seeing it can't via an image calculate the calories of a burrito bought from Chipolte and other chains? All chains have nutrition information on their websites now that GPT goes and fetches. As for home cooked prepared meals I have taken pics of my food via GPT and it seemed to come close.

__turbobrew__ · 1m ago
I don’t think awareness of caloric intake is the problem, there are standardized labels on most foods (especially the bad ones). Most people who are obese know that the calories make them overweight, but they still have the need to eat food — which is what makes obesity a result of addiction. Similarly meth addicts know that meth is bad for them, but they still do it anyways.
astrange · 9s ago
How often do people control their own diets? That assumes they buy and cook all their own food, which is only true if you live on your own.
foota · 19m ago
I realize this is a fraught question, because not everyone is overweight by choice (whether due to a subsisting on whatever they can afford, time, genetics, injury, etc,.) but I believe that insurers are able to consider whether someone smokes cigarettes when setting premiums for ACA based healthcare. With the above caveats that would make this difficult, it would be nice if we could treat "voluntary" obesity similarly.