Business of cannabis reports
German associations have called for wider reforms to medical cannabis regulations to ‘reduce bureaucracy’ and open up access for patients.
In July 2023, Germany’s federal government commissioned the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) – the body responsible for determining which medical treatments are covered by the country’s statutory health insurance – to amend the current regulations around medical cannabis prescriptions.
The G-BA is in the process of deciding four specialist areas for which the current approval requirement should no longer apply, making it easier to obtain insurance coverage for the medicine.
However, the country’s medical cannabis associations say this does not go far enough and have called for the approval requirement to be removed for all conditions in which cannabis has shown medical efficacy.
Medical cannabis has been legal in Germany since 2017 and can be prescribed by any doctor for patients with serious medical conditions. It is one of the few countries globally where the treatment can be covered under the public health insurance system in certain cases.
But currently, for patients with statutory health insurance, the costs of medical cannabis are only covered if previously approved by the insurance company.
This application process is said to be ‘daunting, lengthy and bureaucratic’ for doctors and patients, with 30-40% of applications being rejected.
