356C Schmidthorst College of Business, Department of Economics, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, United States.
Department of Finance, Insurance and Law, Illinois State University and Katie School of Insurance and Risk Management, United States.
Int J Drug Policy. 2023 Sep;119:104143. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104143. Epub 2023 Aug 10.
To evaluate the impact of medical cannabis laws (MCLs) on health insurance premiums. We study whether cannabis legalization significantly impacts aggregate health insurer premiums in the individual market. Increases in utilization could have spillover effects to patients in the form of higher health insurance premiums.
We use 2010-2021 state-level U.S. private health insurer financial data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. We examined changes to individual market health insurance premiums after the implementation of medical cannabis laws. We employed a robust difference-in-differences estimator that accounted for variation in policy timing to exploit temporal and geographic variation in state-level medical cannabis legalization.
Seven years after the implementation of Medical Cannabis laws, we observe lower health insurer premiums in the individual market. Starting seven years post-MCL implementation, we find a reduction of $-1662.7 (95% confidence interval [CI -2650.1, -605.7]) for states which implemented MCLs compared to the control group, a reduction of -$1541.8 (95% confidence interval [CI 2602.1, -481.4]) in year 8, and a reduction of $-1625.8, (95% confidence interval [CI -2694.2, -557.5]) in year 9. Due to the nature of insurance pooling and community rating, these savings are appreciated by cannabis users and non-users alike in states that have implemented MCLs.
The implementation of MCLs lowers individual-market health insurance premiums. Health insurance spending, including premiums, comprises between 16% and 34% of household budgets in the United States. As healthcare costs continue to rise, our findings suggest that households that obtain their health insurance on the individual (i.e., not employer sponsored) market in states with MCLs appreciate significantly lower premiums.
评估医用大麻法规（MCL）对健康保险费率的影响。我们研究大麻合法化是否会对个人市场中的总体健康保险公司保费产生重大影响。利用率的增加可能会以更高的健康保险费的形式对患者产生溢出效应。
我们使用了来自美国国家保险专员协会的 2010 年至 2021 年美国各州私人健康保险公司的财务数据。我们研究了在实施医用大麻法规后，个人市场的健康保险费率的变化。我们采用了一种稳健的双重差分估计量，该估计量考虑了政策时间的变化，以利用州级医用大麻合法化的时间和地理差异。
在实施医用大麻法规七年后，我们观察到个人市场的健康保险公司保费下降。在 MCL 实施后七年，我们发现实施 MCL 的州与对照组相比，个人市场的保险费率降低了$1662.7（95%置信区间[CI]为-2650.1，-605.7]），第八年降低了$-1541.8（95%置信区间[CI]为 2602.1，-481.4]），第九年降低了$-1625.8，（95%置信区间[CI]为-2694.2，-557.5]）。由于保险汇集和社区评级的性质，在实施 MCL 的州，这些节省受到了大麻使用者和非使用者的赞赏。
实施 MCL 降低了个人市场的健康保险费率。在美国，健康保险支出（包括保费）占家庭预算的 16%至 34%。随着医疗保健成本的不断上升，我们的研究结果表明，在实施 MCL 的州，通过个人（即非雇主赞助）市场获得健康保险的家庭的保费显著降低。
