The passing of the legislation hot potato known as the Cannabis Act continues. The bill is now back in the Senate after the House of Commons voted 205 to 82 in favour of Bill C-45 on June 18. Last week, the House of Commons rejected several key amendments made to the bill by the Senate, which put aspects of it back up for discussion.
The ongoing debate in government gives insurance professionals some time to learn about the marijuana sector, such as the differences in figuring out the costs associated with medical cannabis versus standard medications.
“In terms of underwriting, the cost of medical cannabis is much more difficult [to determine] than a traditional therapy,” said Scott Campbell, a clinical pharmacist at Cubic Health who will also be leading an Insurance Business webinar about the cannabis sector on June 28. “When you’re referring to any other traditional medication, you’re looking at one or a few of finite numbers of distinct medications that are being used for a finite number of conditions, whether that be one or a few.
“When it comes to medical cannabis, there’s dozens of different doses and dosage forms that can be used for dozens of different medical conditions, and the cost associated with it can vary drastically as well, depending on the dose and the product that’s ultimately chosen, so there definitely is a much more complex process underwriting the risk of medical cannabis as compared to a traditional therapy.”
Campbell will give webinar participants a high-level overview of the recreational and medical markets and terminology associated with them from his perspective at Cubic, which is already knee-deep in the cannabis insurance space.
“One of the elements that we provide at Cubic is that we’re able to use transactional level drug claims data in order to quantify the potential exposure to medical cannabis claims within an organization,” he said.
As for what’s to come as the Cannabis Act’s regulatory regime is established, aspects of the cannabis insurance market are TBD.
“It is still definitely a work in progress because the bill itself and the provincial approaches are still continuing to evolve,” said Campbell.
Scott Campbell will be leading a webinar on establishing vocabulary for the evolving cannabis market on June 28. For more details and to register, click here.
