Access To Medical Marijuana Linked To Decreases In Health Insurance Premiums

Newly published data points to a link between medical marijuana and lower health insurance premiums at the state level, according to Miami’s Community News.

The research, published in the journal Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, examined the connection between medical cannabis legalization laws and employer-sponsored healthcare premiums over a ten-year period. It was conducted by researchers affiliated with the medical cannabis technology company Leafwell.

The authors found health care premiums were lower in the states with such laws, stating, “For states that adopted a medical cannabis law, there was a significant decrease in the … average total premium per employee for single and employee-plus-one coverage plans per year … compared with states without such laws. … Our results are significant as healthcare costs, primarily driven by the cost of premiums, have grown in the past decade or more and account for an increasing proportion of an employer and employees’ budget.”

They added that under a hypothetical scenario in which medical marijuana was legalized in all 50 states in 2022, employers and employees could collectively save an estimated billions on healthcare coverage, potentially reducing healthcare expenditure’s contribution to GDP by 0.65% in 2022.

“Adoption of a medical cannabis law may contribute to decreases in healthcare costs,” the authors conclude. “This phenomenon is likely a secondary effect and suggests positive externalities outside of medical cannabis patients.”

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