Canadian Companies Consider Covering Medical Cannabis in Employee Health Benefit Plans – News

While the United States is stuck in an ideological tug of war between pro-cannabis legislation and federal illegality, our neighbors up north are on the path towards full-scale legalization. In fact, Canada’s medical marijuana system is already well established, and some of the country’s insurance companies and pharmacy chains have already opted to provide cannabis coverage to customers and employees. 

With recreational legalization set to begin in 2018, more and more medium to large-scale Canadian employers are now considering the inclusion of medical cannabis in employee health benefit plans. A majority of these companies are self-insured, meaning that they typically use insurance companies to administer health benefit plans to employees while paying for the costs of coverage on their own. 

However, some Canadian insurance companies have been less inclined to cover marijuana under health insurance policies. According to health industry insider Mike Sullivan, insurance companies are unable to “get their head around how to price the risk of medical cannabis.” 

Although medical cannabis may soon become a standard benefit in Canadian health insurance,…