SC Medicare Drug Spending: Ozempic
The Diabetes Shot Behind $176 Million in South Carolina Medicare Spending
Ranked 52nd in prescriptions. But Ozempic is South Carolina's second most expensive Medicare drug.
$175.5M
Total SC Medicare spend on Ozempic (semaglutide), 2023
$1,331
Average cost per prescription
#52 / #2
Rank by prescriptions / rank by total cost
What is Ozempic?
Ozempic (semaglutide) is a once-weekly injectable for Type 2 diabetes. It belongs to the GLP-1 class and lowers blood sugar while reducing cardiovascular risk in people with existing heart disease. South Carolina has the 10th highest diabetes prevalence in the country, about 15% of South Carolinians. That disease burden concentrated in rural and coastal communities drives high GLP-1 prescribing in the Medicare population.
The cost structure
No generic semaglutide exists. At $1,331 per prescription, SC Medicare spent $175.5 million on 131,880 Ozempic fills in 2023. Metformin costs about $9 per prescription. Ozempic is roughly 148 times more expensive per fill, and the rank gap between its prescription volume and its cost rank is 50 positions.
What to know at open enrollment
Plans vary significantly in how they tier Ozempic. The 2025 annual cap of $2,000 limits your maximum exposure. SC's Medicare Extra Help program can reduce cost sharing for eligible lower-income beneficiaries. Check LIS eligibility at ssa.gov before open enrollment.
The diabetes drug picture in SC
SC Medicare spent roughly $550 million on GLP-1 drugs and SGLT2 inhibitors combined in 2023. Ozempic, Jardiance, Trulicity, and Farxiga alone account for nearly that entire amount. Diabetes is the most expensive therapeutic category in South Carolina Medicare Part D.
SC Medicare filled 131,880 Ozempic prescriptions in 2023. Atorvastatin, the most-prescribed drug in the state, was filled 1.05 million times and cost $14.4 million total. Ozempic was filled 8 times less often but cost 12 times more.
Top 10 South Carolina Drugs by Total Medicare Part D Spending, 2023
Source: CMS Medicare Part D Prescribers by Geography and Drug, 2023. South Carolina state-level data.
A note on this data: All figures come from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS) Medicare Part D Prescribers by Geography & Drug dataset, 2023. This data covers Medicare Part D
(prescription drug coverage) only and does not represent commercial insurance, Medicaid, or cash-pay prescriptions.
Suppressed values (fewer than 11 beneficiaries) are excluded from totals.
This article is for educational purposes only. Nothing here is medical advice. Talk to your doctor before
making any decisions about your medications or treatment. This content is not connected with or endorsed
by the U.S. Government or the federal Medicare program.
