Special to Times
City Councilor Sharon Durkan introduced an emergency resolution last week which passed the Council with a unanimous vote calling on the Healey Administration to protect access to life-saving GLP-1 medications, and to establish a taskforce of experts to make recommendations to ensure equitable access to care.
Councilors Breadon, Colletta Zapata, Fitzgerald, Flynn, Louijene, Mejia, Murphy, Pepen, Santana, and Weber also added their names to the filing.
For Councilor Durkan, this issue is deeply personal. She has been prescribed Wegovy, a GLP-1 medication, and credits it with transforming her health.
“I’ve lost 38 pounds,” she said. “I feel better, healthier, and stronger. Truthfully, I feel more myself than I have in years. I share this personal story not to make it about me, but because there is so much stigma and misunderstanding surrounding these medications.”
GLP-1 medications are a class of drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity, the latter of which is a leading public health concern affecting more than 40 percent of adults. These medications are one of the most effective clinical treatments for obesity available today, offering thousands of Massachusetts residents a medically supervised pathway to better health and reduced risk of chronic disease. Obesity disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color, who already face barriers to care that are compounded by stigma surrounding obesity and its treatment.
“GLP-1 medications like Wegovy, Zepbound and Ozempic are not cosmetic or “vanity drugs.” They are real treatments for real diseases,” said Councilor Durkan. “They are helping people across this city and across this Commonwealth manage obesity, reverse diabetes progression, lower blood pressure, and prevent the kind of long-term complications that devastate families and bankrupt our healthcare system.”
In April 2025, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), the largest insurer in the state, announced it would end coverage of GLP-1 medications for obesity treatment beginning in January 2026. Meanwhile, the Governor issued a directive to the Group Insurance Commission to eliminate GLP-1 coverage for weight loss, a move that would significantly restrict access for more than 400,000 public employees and their families.
“These decisions are being made in the name of cost-cutting, but denying coverage only deepens existing health inequities and drives up long-term costs in emergency care,” added Councilor Durkan.
Her resolution urges the Governor to establish a statewide GLP-1 Taskforce composed of public health experts, primary care physicians, representatives from insurance companies, health care economists, business leaders and individuals currently benefiting from GLP-1 medications, to ensure a well-rounded understanding of the implications of these treatments and calls on the Massachusetts Legislature to reject the Governor’s directive to the Group Insurance Commission until that Taskforce is in place. The taskforce’s goal as described is to understand the human stakes of this issue, and providing evidence-based recommendations to ensure equitable access to care in Boston and across the Commonwealth.
Councilor Durkan calls on her colleagues, from Beacon Hill to City Hall, to defend access to care.
“This is personal for me,” she said. “It’s personal for thousands of our residents and public servants who deserve access to care. It should matter to all of us who believe in the power and promise of public health.”