Translated from our German original by AI. The German text was researched, written, and edited by the Psychedelia Foundation team and remains the authoritative version.
For people with statutory health insurance, the supply of medical cannabis has changed fundamentally: since 30 July 2026, cannabis flowers are no longer part of the benefits catalogue of the statutory health insurers. Anyone who still relies on dried cannabis flowers can obtain them only on a private prescription and has to cover the cost themselves.
Entitlements to other cannabis-based medicines, by contrast, remain unchanged. Patients with a serious illness can, under the statutory conditions, continue to receive cannabis extracts of standardized quality as well as medicines containing the active substances dronabinol or nabilone at the expense of the health insurers.
A precondition for longer-term treatment is an initial six-month trial with an approved finished medicinal product containing cannabis. In most cases the health insurer has to approve this treatment in advance. A refusal is permitted only in justified exceptional cases. If the prescription is issued by certain specialists designated by the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (Federal Joint Committee), this approval requirement does not apply.
