# Weight-Loss Drugs Are Gobbling Up Small Town Budgets Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598/weight-loss-drugs-are-gobbling-up-small-town-budgets Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598/weight-loss-drugs-are-gobbling-up-small-town-budgets.md Podcast: [The Journal.](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598) Published: 2026-06-29T20:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/WSJ1289536708.mp3 Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/WSJ1289536708.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-journal-547598/episodes/weight-loss-drugs-are-gobbling-up-small-town-budgets Duration seconds: 1168 ## Resource Many small towns across the country added GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to their employee health insurance plans. Now, some of those towns are being hit with huge unexpected premiums as use of the drugs continues to grow. Imani Moise speaks to a selectwoman from Belchertown, MA who helped navigate her town through a devastating bill and WSJ’s Owen Tucker-Smith takes us through the economics for towns around the country. Further Listening: - Trillion Dollar Shot - Novo Nordisk's CEO Has a Comeback Plan - Ozempic Is a Hit. So Why Is the Drugmaker’s CEO Out? Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-journal-547598/episodes/weight-loss-drugs-are-gobbling-up-small-town-budgets/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-journal-547598/weight-loss-drugs-are-gobbling-up-small-town-budgets.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.