NOVA SCOTIA RIGHTS BOARD RULES MEDICAL MARIJUANA SHOULD BE COVERED BY EMPLOYEE BENEFITS.
FINANCE
A Nova Scotia human rights board has ruled that a patient’s medical marijuana should be covered by his employee insurance plan in a potentially precedent-setting case.
The decision, issued Jan. 30, ruled in favour of Gordon Skinner’s claim that he faced discrimination when trying to access insurance coverage for his disability.
Independent h u man rights board of inquiry chair Benjamin Perryman said that medical marijuana should be an eligible expense since it requires a doctor’s authorization and thus didn’t fall within the plan’s exclusions.
“Since medical marijuana was prescribed for pain management, it was accepted that it is a medical necessity and should be covered,” the board said in a statement. “Conventional prescription pain management drugs are normally eligible for coverage.”
The Canadian National Medical Marijuana Association said it believes the ruling is the first of its kind, a potentially precedent-setting case that could open the door to wider coverage for cannabis patients. “A human rights board has never taken this issue on in the past, at least not in Canada, so that’s huge,” said Deepak Anand, executive director of the CNMMA.
In 2015, student Jonathan Zaid convinced his university’s insurance provider to cover his medical marijuana expenses, but this is the first time a government board has supported coverage, he said.
Insurers have been hesit ant because marijuana doesn’t have a Drug Identification Number (DIN), which is the industry standard usually required before a pharmaceutical is authorized for sale and reimbursement.
Aside from veterans, Canadian patients who use legal medical marijuana must pay for their own drugs. Many patients believe cannabis is a healthier and less addictive alternative to prescription drugs such as opioids, which are covered by conventional insurance plans.
Patient groups and licensed medical marijuana producers alike have been lobbying the federal government and insurance companies to have their preferred drugs covered, which can cost patients hundreds of dollars a week.
Skinner, of Chezzetcook, N.S., who suffers chronic pain following a car accident, told the board he has been unable to work since. He said marijuana has helped his condition better than conventional pain killers.
He was denied coverage for cannabis in May 2014 by his insurance provider, the Canadian Elevator Industry Welfare Trust Fund.
Skinner’s medical marijuana expenses will be covered “up to and including the full amount of his most recent prescription.”
In order to be covered, the drug must be purchased from one of the Health Canada licensed medical marijuana producers or a person authorized for Skinner under the law.