German Cannabis Business Association write
The German Federal Government intends to hold the Bundestag vote on the Statutory Health Insurance (GKV) Contribution Stabilization Act on Friday, July 10, 2026. The bill includes extensive cost-cutting measures, including limits on hospital remuneration and reductions to family insurance benefits. Opposition parties have rejected the legislative package.
The key issue for the cannabis industry is that, under the original government proposal, medical cannabis flowers would no longer be reimbursed by the statutory health insurance system (GKV). During committee deliberations, however, a last-minute amendment was introduced under which cannabis flowers could remain available as a medical fallback option, provided that patients have first undergone an unsuccessful six-month treatment with cannabis-based finished medicinal products.
According to Apotheke Adhoc, the proposal is based on the premise that industrially approved pharmaceutical products constitute the more appropriate form of treatment. The amendment is particularly significant in light of Vertanical‘s upcoming market launch of Exilby, a finished medicinal cannabis product for chronic lower back pain. Under the proposal, GKV patients would only gain access to medical cannabis flowers and extracts after conventional pharmaceutical cannabis therapies have proven unsuccessful.
As reported by KrautInvest, industry associations including the Association of Cannabis Supplying Pharmacies (VCA), the German Association of Pharmaceutical Cannabinoid Companies (BPC), and pharmacists have sharply criticized the proposal. They argue that it would create substantial barriers to patient access, as approved finished medicinal cannabis products are authorized for only a limited number of indications, making a blanket priority rule likely to result in problematic off-label prescribing. They further warn that physicians’ therapeutic freedom would be significantly restricted. According to industry experts, approximately 65,000 patients in Germany could be directly affected by the proposed changes.
Kathrin Konyen, Coordinator of the Medical Cannabis Division at the German Cannabis Business Association (BvCW), commented: “The legislation does not solve a single structural financial problem facing the statutory health insurance funds, yet it deprives tens of thousands of pain and palliative care patients in Germany of the medical cannabis flowers and extracts that currently appear to be the most suitable medicines for their individual treatment.”
Green Party health policy spokesperson Janosch Dahmen, Member of the Bundestag, announced that he had requested an expedited review by the Federal Constitutional Court, arguing that the legally required parliamentary deadlines had not been observed.
“Nearly 300 pages of amendments containing numerous new provisions were presented to Members of Parliament only shortly before the final deliberations. No one can seriously claim that legislation with multi-billion-euro consequences for 75 million people insured under the statutory health insurance system can still be reviewed responsibly under these conditions,” Dahmen stated.
An attempt to remove the bill from Friday’s parliamentary agenda was rejected today by the governing coalition’s majority in the Bundestag.
