Medicare Recipients Want Cannabis – They Are Using It Anyway

Medicare Green Road Sign Over Dramatic Clouds and Sky.

It is no secret that Medicare isn’t a stellar health insurance program. Medicare coverage is somewhat limited compared to private health insurance. Furthermore, its lack of comprehensive coverage requires seniors to buy supplemental insurance on their own. So it should be no surprise that growing numbers of seniors are calling on Medicare to start covering medical cannabis.

Roughly 20% of all Medicare patients use medical cannabis to treat one or more conditions. They are obviously covering the cost themselves. But should they? One-third of Medicare patients say no. By a margin of 2-to-1, patients say it is time for Washington to step up and begin covering medical cannabis.

It should also not be surprising that approximately 39% of Medicare patients use cannabis recreationally. Remember, this is the generation that pioneered the hippie movement in the 1960s. Among those recreational users that did not use cannabis as young people, 28% say they arrived at recreational consumption after previously being medical users.

A Change in Federal Law

As much as Medicare patients would like to see their health plans cover medical cannabis, it is not going to happen unless Congress changes the law. Federal law still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I controlled substance. That means Medicare could not cover prescriptions for it even if it wanted to. The same law prevents veterans from getting free medical cannabis from VA clinics.

If Congress were willing to make the change, they would probably have to make it for both Medicare and Medicaid. That would be phenomenal just on its own merits. But providing coverage through Medicare and Medicaid would also impact the private insurance market.

Private insures often follow Medicare’s lead when changing coverages. If Medicare covers something, most private insurance companies do as well. The same goes when Medicare chooses not to cover something. So imagine what might happen if Medicare approved medical cannabis coverage? Private insurance companies would probably follow suit shortly thereafter.

A Catch-22 Scenario

Entertaining the thought of Medicare approving medical cannabis coverage is fun up to a point. But the idea creates a catch-22 scenario. Start with the assumption that Medicare could only give approval to medical cannabis after Congress decriminalized the drug. Here is where it gets interesting.

Is there a need for medical cannabis alongside recreational consumption? In other words, if cannabis were completely decriminalized across the board, would there even be a need for a medical market? We don’t have dual markets for alcohol.

As things currently stand, there is very little difference between a recreational cannabis product and its medical counterpart. But according to the good people behind the Pure Utah medical cannabis pharmacy in Payson, UT, that could change with decriminalization. Taking cannabis off the Schedule I list could encourage the kind of research needed to actually develop cannabis medications.

All of this is obviously speculation. No one knows what Congress will ultimately do. Senate Democratic leader Church Schumer has promised to get a bill to the floor this summer (2022). He promised the same thing in 2021 and didn’t deliver. If he fails again, there is no hope for Medicare approving medical cannabis before the end of 2023.

Keep Buying Out of Pocket

In the meantime, Medicare patients will have to keep buying their cannabis out of pocket. That could get expensive, especially among seniors on a fixed income. But that is the system we have to work with right now.

Who knows? By this time in 2022, we could be talking about how much coverage Medicare provides rather than whether or not they will cover medical cannabis at all.