Starting in October, Starbucks will no longer pay for GLP-1 drugs when they are prescribed for weight loss. The Seattle-based coffee chain may still cover the same medicines for other medical uses.
A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed the previously unreported change but gave no further details. The company offers benefits to full-time and part-time workers who work at least 20 hours per week, so those employees are the ones affected.
GLP-1 drugs, a type of medicine first created for diabetes, are now in high demand as obesity treatments. Obesity is tied to many chronic conditions, which is why so many people ask for the drugs in the first place.
The same medicines have long been covered for diabetes, since that was their original medical purpose. The newer weight-loss use has broadened demand and pushed GLP-1 spending into a bigger share of employer claims.
The nonprofit International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans found in a 2026 survey that GLP-1 prescriptions represented 11.4% of corporate employers' total annual health claims in the latest year. That share was 6.9% in 2023.
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The survey also showed that 36% of corporate employers covered these medicines for diabetes treatment and for weight management. By comparison, 60% of corporate employers paid for them only for diabetes.
Corporate health budgets are feeling it. Mercer, a consulting firm, calculates that average per-worker health-benefit costs increased 6% in the most recent year. Mercer expects costs to rise 6.7% in the current year and attributes much of the increase to heavier use of expensive GLP-1 medications.
Starbucks is not alone. Minnesota-based Allina Health stopped covering GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for employees and covered dependents in January 2025.
Allina said at the time that keeping the benefit would have pushed medical premiums considerably higher.
The professional services firm PwC has also stopped paying for GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss, according to reports.
Bank of America is keeping its coverage. CEO Brian Moynihan said days ago, "The bank spends more than $250 million a year on GLP-1 coverage for staff."
That amount is roughly 13% of the bank's yearly health-care budget. The budget is more than $2 billion, and Moynihan called the spending an investment in employee health.
The bigger story is not one coffee chain, even one as large as Starbucks. It is the direction employer coverage is heading as drug costs climb.
Employers are making these decisions in a fast-changing environment.
More companies may follow the same path, which is why workers cannot assume a popular medication is covered just because it was covered last year. That makes the next enrollment period a natural moment to read your plan's rules.
For people with employer benefits, the stakes are simple. Health plans are looking at a new, expensive class of drugs and deciding where the line should be, and that line is moving.
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