Hamburg Regional Court (LG) decided in a ruling from August 1, 2025, that a private health insurer (PKV) must cover the costs for a medicinal cannabis therapy for a former police officer from Schleswig-Holstein, as reported by beck-aktuell. The court awarded the man back payments totaling around 19,758 euros as well as a claim for future cost coverage. Following an expert opinion, the 37th Civil Chamber affirmed the medical necessity of the therapy for the plaintiff’s chronic pain syndrome, which resulted from a service accident in 2007. The cannabis treatment had resulted in a significant reduction in pain after other conventional medical alternatives, including treatment according to the WHO step scheme, had previously been exhausted, showed insufficient effect, or caused serious side effects. The court rejected the PKV’s arguments. Neither the plaintiff’s psychiatric history nor the not yet conclusively documented scientific study situation on cannabis changed the medical necessity in the specific individual case. For the insurer, only the suitability of the therapy for the individual insured person is decisive. Side effects or subsequent illnesses could not relativize the necessity of a suitable therapy.
Source: German Cannabis Business Association
