Pubdate: Thu, 19 Mar 2015
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Ron Corbett
Page: 17

INSURANCE OBJECTIONS GO UP IN SMOKE

And so the levee breaks. The man to break it is called Jonathon
Zaid.

A student at the University of Waterloo. Anearnest, likeable young man
with an almost unbelievable story to tell.

Although we always knew the person who would break the
medicinal-marijuana-insurance-levee would have those qualities.

Jonathan Zaid was diagnosed at the age of 14 with New Daily Persistent
Headache (NDPH), a medical condition so poorly understood doctors
debate everything from forms of treatment to whether it should be
viewed as a syndrome or diagnosis.

As though that would make any difference to a person afflicted with
it. Because there is agreement on a few salient points-the pain when
you have NDPH is migraine like. It is persistent and unremitting.
There is no cure.

Zaid is part of an unlucky NDPH subset that is also sensitive to light
and noise. He had to drop out of public school in Grade 8 because of
this.

He has tried 48 different pharmaceuticals to treat or manage his
condition, and had no lasting success with any of them.

It is only through sheer determination that he managed to complete his
secondary education at a private school that made accommodations for
his condition.

His parents were paying for his marijuana.

Yes, if the people out there looking for a test case to break the
insurance company levee against medicinal marijuana claims had called
down to central casting, they could not have done better than Jonathan
Zaid.

And there were plenty of people waiting for Jonathan
Zaid.

Let's be clear on that. He is sort of the Harry Potter of medicinal
marijuana.

That is because the medicinal marijuana industry in Canada is not
sustainable (too small a market) and is premised on one of two things
happening in the near future.

Either marijuana will be allowed for recreational use, and the
companies sellingpot can stop pretending they are pharmaceutical companies.

Or a private insurance company will pay out on a medicinal marijuana
claim and this whole pharmaceutical charade becomes highly lucrative.
Ka-ching on number two. Sun Life, the company that paid out Zaid's
claim under the University of Waterloo's student health insurance
plan, has taken pains to say this was an exceptional circumstances
case.

There are not a lot of Jonathan Zaids in the world.

This will not set a precedent for future medicinal marijuana claims,
the company says.

But everyone knew it would be an exceptional set of circumstances that
would merit the first medicinal marijuana claim paid out. And now it
has happened. It is difficult to fathom how the insurance industry can
maintain a position for any length of time that basically says one
person with a medical document for marijuana use has more rights than
another person with the same medical document.

Likable doesn't count for much in a court challenge.

The facts are there - an insurance claim was paid out for medicinal
marijuana.

The country's leading medicinal marijuana providers, Bedrocan, helped
Zaid in his battle to have his marijuana expenses covered under the
University of Waterloo's health insurance plan.

And the same company has now appointed him to its "patient advisory"
board.

But the problem with all this-what keeps this from being merely a
curious little story-is that this precedent will ultimately affect
everyone's insurance rates.

And that's not so funny, or quirky.

Perhaps it is time for the government to legalize, or at least
decriminalize, recreational marijuana use.

This medicinal marijuana ruse is about to get costly.
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MAP posted-by: Matt