will cover more than 250 prescriptions at no cost to its employees in 2027, including some insulin, inhalers and for diabetes. The company confirmed the change on October 13, 2026.
The free drugs include 's Ozempic and 's Mounjaro, for people with Type 2 diabetes, .
The diagnosis, not the drug, is the coverage line. Walmart pays for the diabetes use of the same medicines it refuses to pay for as weight-loss drugs.
Walmart still does not cover GLP-1s from Novo and Lilly for weight loss. Other large employers don't cover those treatments for obesity either, or have dropped coverage to hold down their healthcare costs.
Walmart is the biggest private employer in the U.S., with roughly 2.1 million associates worldwide and about 1.6 million of them in the U.S. as of the end of fiscal year 2026.
At that scale, Walmart's benefit design is the benchmark other employers' HR teams read before they set their own.
The company is raising rates for its starting plan by $1.50 per pay period, to $39.80. Walmart told CNBC that is a smaller increase than it made in 2025.
Walmart is also expanding an existing benefit that pays for employees to see cancer specialists at the or the . Starting in 2027, employees under most plans can use it to get a second opinion from a specialist for rare conditions.
The company is adding up to 12 weeks of leave for parents, on top of regular parental and maternity leave.
, Walmart's chief people officer, laid out the changes in a letter to workers on October 13. for Walmart employees closes November 6.
The changes build on Walmart's yearslong effort to improve pay and benefits after criticism of the healthcare coverage and wages it offered.