Study: Legal Medical Cannabis Could Save U.S. Healthcare System $29B Per Year

The federal legalization of medical cannabis could save the United States healthcare system up to $29 billion per year, according to a recent Leafwell study published in the journal Applied Health Economics and Health Policy.

The study found that employers in states with medical cannabis programs experienced 3.4% lower premium costs for individual coverage plans compared to employers in states without legal access to medical cannabis. Additionally, employers in states with legal medical cannabis access saved on average $238 per individual insurance premium, per year, and $348 per employee-plus-one insurance packages, per year, the study estimated.

“A company with 50 employees in a state with medical cannabis laws could expect to spend $14,650 less on health insurance premiums per year compared to a similar-sized company in a state without a medical cannabis law.” — Excerpt from the Leafwell report

Leafwell also estimated that if all 50 states had implemented comprehensive medical cannabis reforms, employers would have experienced savings of $14.9 billion on single coverage plans and $8 billion for employee-plus-one coverage plans. Employees, meanwhile, would have seen annual savings of $4.2 billion for single coverage plans and $2.3 billion for employee-plus-one plans.

In total, legal cannabis programs in all 50 states would have accounted for a 0.65% reduction in U.S. healthcare expenditures, which totaled $4.5 trillion in 2022, equalling a potential $29 billion in savings.