Study Results from Bowling Green State University Broaden Understanding of Marijuana/Cannabis (Does the Legalisation of Cannabis for Medicinal Use Impact Private Health Insurer Prescription Drug Expenditures?): Marijuana/Cannabis

2023 FEB 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Marijuana Daily -- New research on Marijuana/Cannabis is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating in Bowling Green, Ohio, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “We evaluate whether health insurer aggregate prescription drug expenditures change after the legalisation of medicinal cannabis using U.S. health insurer financial filings reported to state insurance regulators and compiled by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners for private health insurers from 2010 to 2018. We analyse this question for health insurers in the individual market, which includes plans sold on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the small group market, which consists of fully insured plans sold to employers with fewer than 50 employees, and the large group market, which consists of fully insured plans sold to employers with more than 50 employees.”

Financial support for this research came from NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD).

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Bowling Green State University, “For all three markets, the treatment effects are not significant. Thus, we find no impact of medical cannabis legalisation on health insurer prescription drug expenditures, despite the potential disruption to the health insurance market.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Had legalisation increased prescription drug expenditures, the increases in cost would have been borne by enrollees, which is troubling since healthcare costs are rising faster than inflation.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Does the Legalisation of Cannabis for Medicinal Use Impact Private Health Insurer Prescription Drug Expenditures? The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Issues and Practice, 2023. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Issues and Practice can be contacted at: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Brunel Rd Bldg, Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 6XS, Hants, England.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Amanda C. C. Cook, Bowling Green State University, College of Business, Dept. of Economics, Bowling Green, OH 43403, United States. Additional authors for this research include E. Tice Sirmans and Brenda Wells.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-022-00284-4. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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