Mounjaro patient assistance: Lilly Cares and other ways to pay

Lilly says people with limited income and no insurance may get Lilly medicines free through the Lilly Cares Foundation, but none of Lilly’s readable pages say whether Mounjaro is covered. What can be confirmed today is the Mounjaro savings card for people with commercial insurance, and Lilly’s self-pay price for people paying cash.

Mounjaro is a type 2 diabetes medicine. Its label approves it to improve blood sugar control, with diet and exercise, in adults and children 10 and older with type 2 diabetes [3]. Lilly’s Mounjaro site states plainly that it is not a weight loss drug [4]. Everything below assumes a diabetes prescription.

What Lilly says about Lilly Cares

Lilly’s contact page describes Lilly Cares as a separate nonprofit that gives donated Lilly medicine at no cost to qualifying people who are unemployed, or who have limited income and no insurance [1]. It sends readers to lillycares.com for details [2]. The Mounjaro savings page and LillyDirect’s Mounjaro page read for this article do not mention it.

Mounjaro is not on the Lilly Cares list. We read the foundation’s Available Medications page in a browser, because the site refuses automated reading: its list of all products has 26 medicines, and the only GLP-1 among them is Trulicity [17], with no Mounjaro, Zepbound or Foundayo. The page also says new Trulicity applications are being accepted again [18].

The income and insurance rules come from the Lilly Cares application; they are on our patient assistance page. If you think you qualify, call Lilly Cares or ask your prescriber’s office.

With commercial insurance: the Mounjaro savings card

Your plan	What you pay	Card limits
Covers Mounjaro	As little as $25 for a one, two or three-month fill of the single-dose pen [5]	Up to $150 off per one-month fill and $1,950 a year [6]
Does not cover Mounjaro	As low as $499 for a one-month fill [7]	Up to $647 off a month and $8,411 a year [8]

The card can be used for up to 13 fills a year [11] and ends on 12/31/2026 [10]. It is closed to anyone enrolled in Medicaid, Medicare, Part D, Medicare Advantage, VA, TRICARE or any other government program [9].

Paying cash through LillyDirect

LillyDirect, Lilly’s own pharmacy service, lists Mounjaro single-dose pens at a self-pay price starting at $499 a month, from the 2.5 mg starting dose [12] up to 15 mg [13]. That is the same amount the savings card lets a commercially insured person pay when the plan refuses Mounjaro [7].

People on Medicare can buy this way too. Lilly’s Mounjaro purchase terms say a Part D enrollee will not count what they pay toward Part D’s out-of-pocket total [14]. Put simply, cash spent this way does not count toward your Part D out-of-pocket costs.

On Medicare

Medicare Part D can cover GLP-1 drugs for type 2 diabetes; CMS lists that use as eligible for Part D coverage [15]. So the first stop is your own drug plan’s formulary and its copay for Mounjaro. The $50 Medicare GLP-1 Bridge is not an option: it covers only Foundayo, Wegovy and the Zepbound KwikPen, and only for weight reduction [16].

Summary

• Low income, no insurance: ask Lilly Cares whether Mounjaro is on this year’s list.
• Commercial plan that covers it: the savings card, as low as $25 [5].
• Commercial plan that excludes it, or no plan: $499 a month, by card or through LillyDirect [7] [12].
• Medicare: your Part D plan first [15].

For the card’s full terms see the Mounjaro savings card page, and for what the drug is approved for see Mounjaro. Other makers’ free-medicine programs are covered on patient assistance programs, and cash prices for weight-loss medicines are on GLP-1 prices without insurance. Whether Mounjaro or a different medicine suits you is your prescriber’s decision.