New York legislators have approved a bill to require that public health insurers in the state include medical marijuana as a covered drug. Private insurers would also be authorized to do so.
On Tuesday, the Assembly Health Committee voted 18-7 in favor of legislation by Majority Leader Crystal Peoples Stokes (D). The legislation now moves to the Ways & Means Committee, before possibly moving to the floor.
This measure would amend state statutes to make cannabis a “prescription drug”, “covered drug” and “health care service” for insurance purposes. Public insurance entities would have to cover medical marijuana, “regardless” of federal financial participation.
For the purposes of coverage, state Medicaid, Child Health Plus and EPIC programs will need to treat cannabis obtained from certified dispensaries in the same way as conventional pharmaceuticals.
The bill clarifies that private health insurances would not be required to cover medical marijuana.
The bill text states that the commissioner of the state Department of Health could also “certify a dispensing location…as an medical assistance provider, solely to dispensing medical marijuana.”
A bill justification memo states that medical marijuana is safer than opioids for thousands of patients. It can be prohibitively costly for patients, especially if they don’t have insurance, but it is often less expensive than other medications. The main barrier to accessing New York’s medical cannabis program is cost.
It continues, “Medicaid, commercial insurance plans and other public health plans don’t cover medical marijuana. Patients must pay out-of-pocket.” Some patients start treatment and then stop because they can’t pay. Others turn to the black markets. Although registered organizations have attempted to offer discounts, they are not sufficient for low-income patients.
“Medical marijuana access should not be restricted to those who are able to pay out of their own pockets. The bill includes medical marijuana in four public health programs: Medicaid, Child Health Plus and workers compensation. It also adds the highly publicly funded Essential Plan to the list. Federal matching funds would not be available for Medicaid or Child Health Plus unless the federal government makes changes to its policies. However, New York’s Medicaid program and Child Health Plus program have always provided coverage for people and services that we don’t receive federal match.
A Senate companion bill by Sen. Jeremy Cooney, (D), has been referred the Health Committee of that chamber but has not yet been scheduled for action.
A previous version of the legislation had been approved by the Senate last year, but it was not passed through the Assembly before the session ended. Similar legislation was also filed in the Assembly at a previous session but did not leave committee.
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The largest marijuana company in New Mexico, , pushed for insurance to cover medical cannabis costs. This was contrary to New York’s law.
A coalition of patients and the company followed up by filing a class action lawsuit against seven state-owned health insurance companies, requesting that they cover cannabis costs for qualified patients.
There have been a number of court cases in which workers have asked for relief from their employers to pay medical cannabis costs for injuries sustained on-site. The U.S. Supreme Court heard two Minnesota cases regarding the issue. However, the Justice Department requested that justices reject the case last yea. The department believed that the matter could be best addressed by the legislative or executive branches.
New York is slowly opening more adult-use marijuana shops while regulators work simultaneously to reduce the number of unlicensed stores that have developed during the glacial rollout.
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