If you currently live in one of the 33 states where medical marijuana has been made legal, you will not be able to access any type of cost savings on medical marijuana from your health insurance. Even though marijuana prescriptions are legal, you cannot have any aspect of your medical prescriptions covered by health insurance.
Under the eyes of the federal government cannabis products are seen as a schedule 1 drug and this means that at a federal level it cannot be prescribed or covered under any type of insurance. Even though marijuana has a series of documented medical benefits for treating PTSD, glaucoma, epilepsy, depression, and more, health insurers will not cover any part of the substance through their plans.
The reason why any insurance provider will not be able to offer coverage for medical marijuana is because of the illegal acts exclusion. By choosing to take medical marijuana you are involving yourself in a voluntary illegal activity under the eyes of the federal government. This means that the insurance provider will still cover you but their knowledge and that you as a policyholder will not be covered for the use of marijuana and the medical expenses that are associated with this. For an insurance provider to give you access to some type of coverage for medical marijuana products, this should be seen as a legal and dishonest act on the part of the insurance company and it would require the federal government to intervene.
The FDA Involvement
The Federal drug administration has only approved a small number of drugs that contain cannabinoids and these may be covered under certain types of insurance. Synthetic THC from Drobinal is currently approved under the FDA and covered under medical plants. Epiddiox with CBD is also approved in covert. As legality becomes more widespread we could see the chance of coverage for items like CBD oil in the future.
This post was written by Flo Sugyatno, operations manager of LOCAL’d and cannabis expert. LOCAL’d is a helping hand to the companies that strengthen your community in the Washington, DC area. Helping them to grow through financial and promotional support.