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Dr. Melissa Hershberg, MD CCFP
May 28, 2026
By Dr. Melissa Hershberg, MD CCFP, Medical Director, Wellness Haus · Best-selling author on medical weight loss Medically reviewed: [28 May, 2026] Last updated: [28 May, 2026]
7 min read
Cost is the second question patients ask, right after does it work. And the honest answer to the cost question is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest.
You can find articles online that tell you Wegovy® costs around $400 a month in Canada, or that Mounjaro® costs around $500. Those numbers are technically true and almost entirely misleading. They are the cost of the drug itself, at the highest dose, before insurance — and they ignore the other 40% to 50% of the program that determines whether the year actually works.
Most existing content does not break this down because most existing providers do not want you to see the full picture. The pill-mill telehealth model depends on the patient comparing “$X for the prescription” against “$X+Y for the medical program” and choosing the cheaper option. What the patient is actually buying when they go that route is the drug without the program —and the program is what makes the drug work long-term.
Here is the full picture, broken down by category, with the honest math.
Let’s start with the line item people search for. These are 2026 Canadian list prices for each medication at typical effective doses. Insurance and individual pharmacy pricing vary.
These ranges assume the patient is at a stable maintenance dose. During the titration phase(the first 3 to 5 months), the patient is typically on lower doses with lower monthly costs — but this is also the phase where physician oversight matters most, so the savings from a lower drug cost get offset by the higher value of clinical care during that period.
A note on Ozempic® specifically: in Canada, Ozempic® is approved for type 2 diabetes, not weight loss. When prescribed off-label for weight management in a patient without diabetes, insurance coverage is generally not available. Wegovy® and Saxenda® are approved for weight management, which sometimes (but not always) makes them more accessible through private insurance.
The short answer: OHIP does not generally cover GLP-1 medications for weight loss in Ontario. OHIP covers GLP-1 medications when they are prescribed for type 2 diabetes(specifically, when the patient has tried other diabetes medications first and the GLP-1 is added under the standard diabetes care pathway). It does not cover GLP-1s prescribed for weight management in a patient without diabetes.
Private insurance is more variable. Some plans cover Wegovy® or Saxenda® (the medications with weight-management approval) under prescription drug benefits. Some plans require pre-authorization, BMI documentation, and a physician’s letter. Some plans cover GLP-1s only for specific employees of specific employer groups. The variability is significant.
At Wellness Haus, we work through insurance carefully with every patient during the consult. We help patients understand which medications their specific plan covers, whether pre-authorization is needed, and what their real out-of-pocket cost will be. We do not promise coverage we cannot deliver.
“The drug is one line item. The program around it is what determines whether the year actually works. People comparing cost without comparing program are comparing two different things.”
— Dr. Melissa Hershberg, MD
Here is where the cost conversation gets honest.
A real medical weight loss program is not just the drug. It is the medical work that makes the drug work. That work has cost categories that almost never appear in the comparison articles. The categories are:
Physician consultations. Initial consult, follow-up consults at each dose titration, ongoing monitoring visits. In a properly run program, this is roughly one visit per month for the first 6months, then less frequently. Each visit has a cost — sometimes covered by your benefits plan as a fee-for-service medical consultation, sometimes out-of-pocket if it falls outside standard OHIP-covered services.
Bloodwork. Comprehensive metabolic panel, lipid panel, thyroid markers, HbA1c, inflammatory markers. At minimum at intake and at the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month milestones. Some bloodwork is OHIP-covered; some clinically useful tests are not.
Body composition treatment. InBody scans at intake and every 4 to 6 weeks during the active phase. Not OHIP-covered. (See our body composition treatment guide for why this matters.)
Blood pressure and electrolyte monitoring. Measured at every visit. The infrastructure to run these tests properly is part of what a real medical program provides.
Complication management. Nausea, constipation, fatigue, occasionally more serious issues. Prescription medications for these complications (anti-nausea, electrolyte replacement, sometimes others) are sometimes covered by insurance, sometimes not.
Aesthetic care for facial volume loss. Not every patient needs this, but many do once weight loss accelerates. Sculptra, PRP, and threads are the tools, and they live outside the strict weight loss program but are part of how a complete program plans for the patient’s appearance.
Here is the part I find myself explaining at almost every consult.
The patient compares two options. Option A: a telehealth service that prescribes a GLP-1 for $Xper month with no medical work attached. Option B: a physician-led program at $X+Y per month that includes the medication plus everything described in the section above. The patient looks at Y and reasonably asks whether it is worth it.
Here is what Y is actually buying.
Y is buying the bloodwork that catches the electrolyte imbalance before it becomes a problem at month 4. Y is buying the body composition scan that detects that the patient has lost 6pounds of muscle and reroutes the protocol before muscle loss becomes irreversible. Y is buying the dose adjustment that breaks a plateau at month 6, instead of the patient quietly giving up on the medication and regaining the weight in months 9 through 14. Y is buying the medical care that means the patient is still in good metabolic shape a year later, instead of having lost weight badly and being worse off than where they started.
The cheaper option is cheaper only if you don’t count the cost of the years afterward.
“The cheaper option is cheaper only if you don’t count the cost of the years afterward.”
— Dr. Melissa Hershberg, MD
I am not going to give you a single number in this article, because the real answer depends on the medication you and I decide is right for you, your insurance situation, your bloodwork needs, and the duration of treatment. A patient who is on Rybelsus® with strong insurance coverage and minimal complications has a very different monthly cost than a patient on Mounjaro® at the maximum dose with no insurance coverage.
What I can tell you is the structure.
The free consult is free. You sit down with our medical team. We discuss your goals, your history, your insurance, your circumstances. We tell you what the right protocol would look like and what each line item would cost. We answer the cost question honestly, with specific numbers tailored to you.
If you proceed, the program includes the medication itself, the physician consultations across the year, the bloodwork at each milestone, the body composition treatment with InBody, the blood pressure and electrolyte monitoring, and the management of any complications that arise. Aesthetic care for facial volume loss is offered as an optional add-on through our Glow Club membership if and when the patient wants it.
The total monthly cost — drug plus program — for most patients at Wellness Haus lands in a range that is meaningfully higher than the headline drug price they will find on a telehealth checkout page, and meaningfully lower than what a year of failed weight management costs in lost progress, lost muscle, and unmanaged complications.
The right number for you is a number we work out together at the consult. Book the consult, and let’s do the math properly.
Ozempic® costs roughly $250 to $350 per month at typical effective doses for weight management (1 mg to 2 mg weekly), before insurance. Ozempic® is approved in Canada for type 2diabetes, not weight loss, which means insurance coverage for weight management indications is generally not available. The total cost in a medical weight loss program is the drug cost plus the physician consultations, bloodwork, body composition treatment, and ongoing care that make the program work.
Wegovy® costs roughly $400 to $500 per month at the typical effective dose (1.7 mg to 2.4mg weekly), before insurance. Wegovy® is approved in Canada for chronic weight management, which means some private insurance plans do cover it. Coverage varies significantly by plan. We work through insurance specifics with every patient at the free consult.
No. OHIP does not generally cover GLP-1 medications for weight management in Ontario. OHIP covers GLP-1 medications when they are prescribed for type 2 diabetes under the standard diabetes care pathway. For weight management specifically, OHIP coverage is generally not available— though private insurance and benefit plans sometimes are.
Yes, the upfront monthly cost is higher than a telehealth service that prescribes the drug alone. What’s included in that higher cost is the medical work that determines whether the year on the medication actually succeeds: physician consultations, body composition treatment, comprehensive bloodwork, blood pressure and electrolyte monitoring, plateau management, and complication support. Patients who go the cheaper route are often paying more in the long run when failed treatment requires restart or when unmanaged complications develop. We discuss this honestly at every consult.
Importing prescription medications from outside Canada is legally complicated and carries real risks: counterfeit products, dosing inconsistencies, no physician oversight, no monitoring of side effects. We recommend against this strongly and do not support patients pursuing this route. The cost difference is rarely worth the clinical risk.
Bring this up at the free consult. We work with patients on what is realistic for them. Sometimes that means a less expensive medication choice. Sometimes it means a longer titration schedule. Sometimes it means leveraging private insurance creatively. Sometimes the right answer is that this is not the right time for a GLP-1 program, and we will tell you that honestly. We do not sell programs to patients who cannot sustain them — that is not a successful outcome for anyone.
We will discuss what payment structures are available during your free consult. Specific financing options change periodically and depend on the components of the program you choose. The honest cost conversation is part of the consult itself.
A free consult with the Wellness Haus medical team. We’ll discuss your goals, your medical history, and whether a physician-led GLP-1 program — with body composition treatment built in— is the right next step.
Physician-led · Legit Script Certified · Toronto
Medical Director, Wellness Haus · Best-selling author
Dr. Hershberg has spent her career at the intersection of medicine and weight loss. She leads the physician-led GLP-1 program at Wellness Haus in Toronto, where every patient receives comprehensive monitoring, body composition treatment, plateau management, and long-term care.
Read more about Dr. Hershberg →
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your physician before starting any weight loss medication or program. Individual results vary. Wellness Haus is Legit Script-certified for healthcare merchants.
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