Medical marijuana, used to treat all the things from persistent ache to Parkinson’s Illness to PTSD, remains to be not lined by medical insurance coverage, a value some say is prohibitively costly to those that depend on the drug.
“Hashish is medication, it’s indeniable,” Dr. Ryan Zaklin, who works within the MassGeneral Brigham community, mentioned at a Beacon Hill listening to. “Medicine, it’s all lined by insurance coverage. There’s no cause for this to not be.”
A invoice filed by state Rep. David LeBoeuf, D-Worcester, within the Home and Sens. Julian Cyr, D-Truro and Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, would legalize medical health insurance protection for medical marijuana merchandise and associated medical visits.
Zaklin mentioned within the Joint Committee on Monetary Companies listening to that sufferers, who pay an annual price for the medicine, don’t come to him for marijuana. As an alternative, “they arrive to me for ache, they arrive to me for nervousness, they arrive to me for insomnia, and this is part of what I do,” he mentioned. He added that value is among the many largest boundaries to therapy he sees in his observe.
One estimate on PriceofWeed.com put Massachusetts’s prices effectively above the nationwide common: an oz of “medium-quality” bud prices $282 within the Bay State, whereas nationally, that value can be $256.
As a result of hashish remains to be thought-about a Schedule I drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration, and never but FDA authorised, Massachusetts doesn’t permit well being insurers to pay for medical marijuana. The Supreme Judicial Court docket reaffirmed that call in Massachusetts final 12 months, as CommonWealth Journal reported.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Affiliation of Well being Plans mentioned in an announcement that well being insurers cowl one cannabis-derived drug, Epidiolex, a seizure drug. Insurers additionally cowl three artificial cannabis-related drug merchandise which deal with nausea and anorexia: Marinol, Syndros, and Cesamet.
“The FDA performs an essential position in supporting scientific analysis on varied medication to evaluate their medical efficacy, the suitable dosage, decide one of the best route of administration, and check for doable drug interactions,” MAHP mentioned in an announcement. “As a result of medical marijuana will not be but FDA authorised, Massachusetts well being plans don’t provide protection.”
A number of sufferers who depend on medical marijuana for persistent circumstances testified Tuesday, arguing that the fee can stop them from this important therapy.
Jennifer Van, 42, suffers from a number of persistent circumstances together with ulcerative colitis, nervousness, PTSD and endometriosis, and in addition survived most cancers. She mentioned she takes a minimum of 15 medicines per day, together with two opiates and three managed substances.
“I may change a minimum of eight of my medicines for medical hashish and eliminate them fully if I may afford it, or if my medical health insurance lined it. Nonetheless, I can’t,” she mentioned. “They are going to pay for high-dose opiates or managed substances, however they won’t pay for the medical hashish.”
