new york state senator jeremy cooney reintroduced a marijuanarelated bill that aims to put medical marijuana under insurance coverage the legislation s8837 was first introduced in the previous legislative session by state sen diane savino d in june nys state senate greenlighted a bill that would require public health insurance programs to cover medical marijuana expenses the legislation would also allow private insurers to do the same “some patients begin treatment only to stop due to inability to pay while others turn to the black market” savino said at the time reported silivecom after passing the senate the bill was sent to the ways  means committee but did not make it out before the end of the 20212022 legislative session now cosponsor of the legislation sen cooney is taking another shot “access to medical marijuana should not be limited to those who can pay out of pocket this bill adds medical marijuana to four publicly funded health programs  medicaid child health plus workers compensation and epic  and the heavily publicly funded essential plan” the justification memo reads “for medicaid and child health plus there would presumably not be federal matching funds until the federal government changes its policies but new yorks medi caid and child health plus programs have always covered people and services for which we do not receive federal match currently there are at least 45 practitioners on staten island who are certifying practitioners for new yorks medical marijuana program photo benzinga edit with images by rodnae productions and alesia kozik via pexels