Cigna is a healthcare company that helps employers and individuals navigate health insurance, prescription drug coverage and access to care. That should make the company especially aware of what losing coverage can mean for the people who rely on it. Unfortunately, its own employees living with obesity have now lost access to an important treatment option.

On July 1, Cigna stopped covering GLP-1 medications used for weight management through its employee health plan. The change applies to Cigna’s own employee plan, not every person who has Cigna insurance.

The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is calling on Cigna to reconsider that decision and restore access to GLP-1 medications for employees living with obesity.

After employees learned about the coverage change, Jama McCloud, a registered nurse who works for Cigna’s Express Scripts pharmacy benefit manager, started a petition asking Cigna to reinstate coverage. Nearly 600 Cigna employees signed it.

Their employees have made their concerns clear.

McCloud told Bloomberg that her original GLP-1 medication cost $25 per month through her employer insurance. After coverage ended, she stopped taking that medication and switched to a compounded version costing roughly $300 per month.

As McCloud told Bloomberg, “Companies need to realize that there are people behind these decisions.”

Cigna has said its decision was made with research and input from leaders across the company, including clinical leaders. The company has also pointed to health coaching and other resources available to support employees with weight management.

Those resources are a part of comprehensive obesity care, but they are not substitutes for FDA-approved medication. Treatment decisions should be made between a patient and healthcare provider in the exam room, not determined by a coverage decision in the boardroom.

Obesity is a complex, chronic disease, and people may need different treatment approaches. Nutrition, physical activity and behavioral support are all a part of comprehensive obesity care, but the expectation that people with obesity should rely on lifestyle changes while access to medication is restricted can reflect the weight bias that continues to shape how obesity is viewed and treated.

Removing access to one treatment option does not make the need for that treatment disappear. For employees like McCloud, losing coverage can mean facing significantly higher costs or having to change their treatment.

That human impact is especially important for a company like Cigna to recognize. As a company whose business includes health insurance and pharmacy benefits, Cigna is uniquely positioned to understand how coverage decisions can affect a person’s ability to afford and continue prescribed treatment.

Cigna has acknowledged the affordability pressures involved in providing GLP-1 coverage. Employers across the country are facing difficult decisions about rising healthcare costs, but those challenges should not be solved by creating new barriers to obesity care.

OAC is urging Cigna to reconsider its decision and restore coverage of GLP-1 medications for employees living with obesity. People with obesity deserve access to the full range of science-based treatment options and the ability to make treatment decisions with their healthcare providers. Take action today and demand Cigna restore GLP-1 coverage!