Israel plans to oblige health insurance funds to compensate for the cost of hemp-based pharmaceuticals

The patient will not be interested in purchasing the leaves and inflorescences themselves, which have tremendous therapeutic properties, and it is planned to create conditions under which the consumer can use much more expensive pharmacological preparations made on hemp basis, because their cost is planned to be compensated from the budget of the health insurance funds.

The bill, submitted to the Israeli legislature, aims to oblige the health insurance funds to finance a certain cost of pharmaceuticals made on the basis of medical cannabis. In particular, the document contains provisions aimed at amending the "Law on National Health Insurance", according to which "medical cannabis treatment" should be added to the list of types of work requiring compensation for payment. According to the wording proposed in the bill, the health insurance funds should participate in the payment for the use of the therapeutic properties of cannabis for medical purposes together with the patient and subject to the approval of the need for this treatment by the health insurance fund specialist.

It should be noted that the degree of compensation for the cost of therapeutic drugs made on the basis of medical hemp is currently not known and will be determined during the discussion in the committees when preparing the bill for the first reading.

“The bill aims to include medical cannabis, used as an essential drug, in Part 2 of the Second Supplement to the National Health Insurance Law,” reads an explanatory note to the bill. "Therefore, treatment using the therapeutic properties of the hemp plant should be included in the health care basket."

About two years ago, a reform aimed at the use of medical cannabis came into force, the purpose of which was to provide legal and regulatory opportunities for the use of the medicinal properties of the hemp plant. According to representatives of companies working with the therapeutic properties of the plant, “Treatment of medical cannabis is not subsidized by the state and, thus, an absurd situation is created in which patients take more expensive drugs, but not necessarily more useful than the leaves and inflorescences of the hemp plant, which have significant therapeutic properties, solely because their use is subsidized by the state, but the plant is not. "

Despite the fact that pharmacological preparations based on the therapeutic properties of the plant are important and save the lives of the patients who receive them, their cost is a heavy burden directly on the consumer in need of hemp therapy. As a result, patients requiring regular use of the therapeutic properties of the cannabis plant for the treatment of chronic and sometimes life-threatening diseases must pay 3-10 times more than if they used the leaves and inflorescences of the plant, which have enormous therapeutic properties.

The explanatory note to the bill states that "The bill will make treatment using the therapeutic properties of cannabis available even for patients who are in financial difficulties so that they can purchase the medicine recommended by their doctor and they would not have to agree to another pharmacological a drug that is more readily available, but not recommended, or a better treatment for a specific patient's disease. "

Commentary of the specialists of the Association "Ukrainian technical hemp"

I would like to focus on one more fact, how immediately after the regulatory and legal support of the possibility of using pharmacological preparations made on the basis of the hemp plant, the question of partial or full compensation of their cost at the expense of taxpayers (as it is implemented in Germany) or health insurance funds is raised how it is planned to be done in Israel. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to an interesting tendency of Israeli patients, according to which they acquire less quality or not exactly the drugs that they need for treatment, but the cost of which is compensated. Those. the Israeli consumer does not want to purchase pharmacological drugs prescribed for him for treatment, but the cost of which is not provided for full or partial repayment from the outside. The absurdity of the current situation is that the patient will not be interested in purchasing the leaves and inflorescences themselves, which have enormous therapeutic properties, but it is planned to create conditions under which the consumer can use much more expensive pharmacological preparations made on hemp basis, because their cost is planned to be compensated from health insurance budget.