Sept 10 (Reuters) - Cigna ( CI ) said on Wednesday the

percentage of employers paying for obesity drugs has remained

flat year-over-year, though the health insurer still sees an

uptick in demand for the wildly popular treatments.

More than 50% of its Evernorth unit's clients, a group that

includes large employers and health plans, cover the drugs for

weight management, Chief Financial Officer Brian Evanko said at

the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference.

Within Cigna Healthcare, its health benefits only segment,

which caters more to smaller employers, only about 15% to 20% of

clients offer coverage of the medications, he said.

While there is a lot of interest among employers, the steep

price of the highly effective newer GLP-1 drugs Wegovy from Novo

Nordisk and Eli Lilly's ( LLY ) Zepbound has been a

hurdle for access.

"Some of the employers we cover have higher rates of

turnover on their employee base, and so they have questions

about whether they'll see the return or whether the return will

be the benefit of a different employer in the future," Evanko

said.

Still, demand for the obesity drugs remains high, because

even with the same percentage of employers, more people are

using the medications, he added.

U.S. employers cite these drugs and rising healthcare

services costs as the reasoning behind expectations that they

will need to cut benefits to keep monthly premiums for

employer-based health insurance to an increase of 6% or 7% in

2026 as total costs rise 9%.

In May, Cigna ( CI ) said it will cap out-of-pocket costs at $200

per month for patients using the weight-loss drugs Wegovy and

Zepbound through an add-on to its pharmacy benefit management

plans.

The drugs have list prices that reach $1,000 but are

available for about half that or less on the manufacturers'

websites.